THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

DAVIS 


GIFT  OF 


Mrs.  JOSEPH  C.   SHIM,   Sr. 


TALKS  AFIELD 

ABOUT  PLANTS  AND  THE  SCIENCE 
OF  PLANTS 


BY 


L.  H.  BAILEY,  JR. 


BOSTON 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

New  York:  11  East  Seventeenth  Street 

fltfe  fitoergi&e  $re£&  Cambridge 

1885 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAL 
DAVIS 


Copyright,  1885, 
BY  L.  H.  BAILEY,  JR. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge  : 
.ectrotyped  and  printed  by  H.  0.  Houghton  and  Company. 


THE  author  has  written  this  little  volume 
for  those  who  desire  a  concise  and  popular 
account  of  some  of  the  leading  external  fea- 
tures of  common  plants. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

THE  following  figures  have  been  copied  by  permis- 
sion from  Bessey's  "  Botany/'  Henry  Holt  &  Co.  : 
44,  60,  61,  and  the  larger  portions  of  41  and  42  ; 
and  the  following  from  Wood's  "Botanies,"  A.  S. 
Barnes  &  Co.:  24,  25,  26,  27,  28,  29,  34,  48,  and  58. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY        1 

THE   LEADING    SUBDIVISIONS    OF    THE   VEGETABLE 

KINGDOM 4 

Fungi 6 

Algae  —  Sea- Weeds 15 

Lichens 19 

Mosses 21 

Ferns 23 

SOME  OF  THE  MOST  INTERESTING  FEATURES 
OF  FLOWERING  PLANTS. 

THE  FLOWER 29 

THE  STEM 36 

THE  CLASSIFICATION  OF  FLOWERING  PLANTS  .        .        41 

THE  ROSE  FAMILY 54 

THE  COMPOSITE  FAMILY 60 

A  PEEP  AT  THE  INSIDE 68 

THE  SEXES  OF  PLANTS 77 

CROSS-FERTILIZATION 81 

HIDDEN  FLOWERS 94 

THE  ARRANGEMENT  OF  LEAVES 98 

THE  COMPASS-PLANT 104 

How  SOME  PLANTS  GET  UP  IN  THE  WORLD        .        .  106 

CARNIVOROUS  PLANTS 118 

THE  SMALLEST  OF  FLOWERING  PLANTS       .        .        .  130 

WITCH-HAZEL 133 

A  THISTLE  HEAD 136 


vi  CONTENTS. 

WILLOW  TWIGS 139 

A  TALK  ABOUT  ROOTS 140 

THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  SEEING  CORRECTLY        .        .      152 

How  PLANTS  ARE  NAMED 156 

A  CHAPTER  ON  PLANT  NAMES 160 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PIG.  PAGE 

1.  Embiyo  of  Bean 2 

2.  A  Bean  Seedling 3 

3.  Cross-Section  of  Seed  of  Pine 3 

4.  Spores  of  Puff-Bali  .......  4 

5.  Many-Celled  Spores 4 

6.  Bacteria 6 

7.  Bacteria  from  the  Air 8 

8.  Yeast  Plants 9 

9.  Bread  Mould 10 

10.  Cheese  Mould 10 

11.  Grape  Leaf  with  Spots  of  Mildew       .        .        .        .10 

12.  Fragment  of  Grape  Mildew,  much  magnified          .  11 

13.  Fruit  of  Plum-Knot 12 

14.  Polyporus  from  a  Tree  Trunk,  —  top  view     .        .  12 

15.  Mushroom  Spawn 14 

16.  Mushroom        ••.....  14 

17.  Desmids ,16 

18.  Diatoms 17 

19.  Red-Snow  Plant .  18 

20.  Zygnema 18 

21.  Lichen 19 

22.  Gonidia  from  a  Lichen 20 

23.  Liverwort 21 

24.  Pigeon-Moss 23 

25.  Capsule  of  Moss 23 

26.  Polypody  Fern 25 

27.  Fruit  Dot  of  Polypody,  —  top  view    .        .        .        .25 


viil  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

28.  Fruit  Dot,  —  side  view 25 

29.  Flowering  Fern 26 

30.  Camptosorus  or  Walking-Leaf  Fern        ...  27 

31.  Schizaea 27 

32.  Club  Moss 28 

33.  Equisetum  or  Scouring  Rush 28 

34.  Apple  Flowers 29 

35.  Anther 30 

36.  Flowers  of  Marsh-Marigold,  —  "Cowslip  "     .        .  31 

37.  Pods  of  Marsh-Marigold 32 

38.  Morning-Glory 32 

39    Mint  Flower 33 

40.  Flower  of  Ash 33 

41.  Staminate  Flower  and  Catkin  of  Willow    .        .        .33 

42.  Pistillate  Flower  and  Catkin  of  Willow  ...  34 

43.  Section  of  Corn-Stalk 37 

44.  Section  of  an  Oak  Trunk 37 

45.  Section  of  Cherry  Flower 55 

46    Section  of  Apple  Flower .        <        ....  56 

47.  Section  of  Strawberry  Flower 56 

48.  Section  of  Rose  Flower  with  Petals  removed  .        .  58 

49.  Flower  of  Wild  Aster 61 

50.  Section  of  a  Head  or  "  Flower"  of  Coreopsis         .  62 

51.  The  Two  Kinds  of  Florets  in  the  Coreopsis        .        .  62 

52.  Anthers  of  a  Composite 63 

53.  Floret  of  Canada  Thistle 63 

54.  Fruit  of  BeggarVTicks,  showing  Pappus       .        .  64 

55.  Fruit  of  Dandelion  with  Pappus          .        .        .        .64 

56.  Involucre  of  a  Composite 64 

57.  Head  of  Burdock 64 

58.  Pith  Cells 70 

59.  Wood  Cells 70 

60.  Vessels 71 

61.  Hairs  from  Pumpkin- Vine 71 

62.  One-Celled  Hairs 71 

63.  Outlines  of  Epidermal  Cells 72 

64.  Cross-Section  of  a  Leaf 72 

65.  Stomata 72 

66.  A  Pollen  Tube.    Pollen  Tubes  entering  a  Stigma  .  79 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  ix 

67.  Pollen  Grains :  1.  Musk-Flower.    2.  Wild  Cucumber. 
3.  Marsh-Mallow.    4.  Lily.     5.  Chicory.     6.  Pine. 

7.  Evening  Primrose.     (After  Gray)  ...        .  81 

68.  Grass  Flower.     The  Feather-like  Stigmas         .        .  85 

69.  Vallisneria  or  Eel-Grass 87 

70.  Section  of  Flower  of  Figwort 89 

71.  Sections  of  the  Two  Kinds  of  Flowers  of  Partridge- 

berry          91 

72.  Laurel  Flower 92 

73.  Pea  Flower 92 

74.  Hidden  Flowers  of  the  Hooded  Violet      .        .        .95 

75.  Elm        . 98 

76.  Alder 99 

77.  Apple 100 

78.  Honeysuckle 102 

79.  Galium 103 

80.  Larch 103 

81.  Pine 103 

82.  Clematis  Leaf 107 

83.  Echinocystis  or  Wild  Cucumber    ....      113 

84.  Virginia  Creeper 117 

85.  Sarracenia  or  Pitcher  Plant 119 

86.  Darlingtonia  California 123 

87.  Drosera  or  Sundew 126 

88.  Dionsea  or  Venus'  Fly-Trap 129 

89.  Lemnas 130 

90.  A  Lemna  enlarged 130 

91.  Wolffia.     A,  natural  size;  B,  much  magnified;  <7, 

cross-section  of  plant  in  flower  ....  131 

92.  Witch-Hazel 134 

93.  Seed-Pod  of  Witch-Hazel 134 

94.  Fruit  of  Thistle  with  Pappus 138 

95.  Young  Squash  Plant 140 

96.  Squash  Plant,  showing  Manner  of  Growth  of  Stem 

and  Roots 141 

97.  Root-Hairs 147 

98.  Sucker-like  Roots  of  Parasite 151 

99.  Pocket  Lens 154 

100.  Reading-Glass  .  155 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


As  the  casual  observer  considers  the  plants 
about  him  he  is  impressed  by  the  great  dif- 
ferences between  the  common  species,  and 
he  is  perplexed  in  an  attempt  to  find  any  at- 
tributes or  characters  which  will  serve  to  as- 
sociate naturally  one  plant  with  another. 
He  may  have  a  remote  knowledge  that  bota- 
nists have  arranged  plants  into  certain  great 
natural  orders  or  families,  but  he  is  at  a  loss 
to  discover  upon  what  characters  these  fam- 
ilies rest.  The  sizes  and  shapes  of  plants, 
the  forms  of  their  leaves,  the  shapes  and  col- 
ors of  their  flowers,  are  so  extremely  varia- 
ble that  they  appear  to  differ  much  more 
than  they  agree.  What  similarity,  other 
than  that  which  one  shrub  bears  to  another, 
has  the  willow,  laden  with  its  "  pussies  "  of 
silver  and  of  gold,  to  the  alders  and  the 
poplars  and  the  birches  which  grow  in  the 
same  tangle  ?  Or  wherein  lies  the  kinship 
between  the  buttercup  of  the  meadow  and 


2  TALKS  AFIELD. 

the  clematis  that   clambers  over  our  door- 
way ? 

Notwithstanding  the  great  external  dis- 
similarities of  plants,  the  botanist  is  able  to 
trace  relationships  which  are  decisive.  The 
characters  which  determine  these  relation- 
ships are  not  confined  to  any  organ  or  to 
any  part  of  the  plant :  they  may  exist  in  the 
roots,  in  the  stems,  in  the  leaves,  in  the  gen- 
eral habits  of  the  plants,  but  especially  in 
the  flowers  and  the  fruits. 

This  leads  us  to  a  definition  of  the  term 
fruit.  The  botanist  uses  this  word  in  a  very 
general  way.  It  is  applied  to  the  seed-case 
and  its  contents.  The  fruit  may  be  a  pop- 
py-pod with  its  innumerable  seeds,  a  pea-pod, 
a  rosy  berry  like  the  currant,  an  orange,  a 
pumpkin,  a  beech-nut,  an  acorn,  a  walnut,  a 
spore-case  of  a  fern  or  a  moss,  or  a  grain  of 
wheat.  The  contents  of  the  seed-case  are 
not  always  true  seeds,  and  we  must  now  de- 
mand a  definition  of  a  seed.  If 
we  remove  the  thin  outer  cover- 
ing of  a  bean  and  pry  apart  the 
halves  of  which  it  is  composed, 
an  object  like  Fig.  1  will  be  pre- 
Between  the  large  separated  por- 
tions is  a  little  object  not  unlike  a  bud,  and 


FRUIT  AND  SEED.  3 

below  it  is  a  minute  projection.  If  the  bean 
were  placed  in  moist  sand  and  allowed  to 
germinate  this  bud  would  be  seen  to  de- 
velop into  two  green  leaves  and  the  little 
projection  to  push  downward  into  a  root. 
The  little  leaves  con- 
tinue to  grow  and  the 
old  halves  of  the  bean 
are  pushed  up  into  the 
air  as  shown  in  Fig.  2. 
These  dry  halves  soon 
fall  away ;  but  they 
have  performed  an  im- 
portant function  in  fur- 
nishiiig  food  to  the 

young  plant  while  it  was  germinating  and 
establishing  itself  in  the  soil.  They  are 
therefore  like  leaves  in  some  respects,  and 
they  are  called  the  seed-leaves  or  cotyledons. 
These  thick  cotyledons  with  the  little  bud 
and  the  initial  stemlet  constitute 
the  embryo.  Sometimes  this  em- 
bryo does  not  occupy  the  whole  of 
the  seed,  but  is  imbedded  in  a  mass 
of  starch,  which  contributes  to  its 
support  when  it  germinates.  This  g* 3" 
is  illustrated  in  the  seed  of  the  pine,  Fig.  3. 
The  seed,  then,  consists  essentially  of  an  em- 


4  TALKS  AFIELD. 

bryo  or  initial  plantlet  inclosed  in  an  integu- 
ment. There  are  other  bodies  in  the  lower 
plants  which  possess  the  functions  of  seeds 
in  reproducing  the  plant,  but  which  are  en- 
tirely different  in  their  structure.  These 
bodies  are  the  spores  of  ferns,  of  mosses,  of 
moulds,  and  other  low  plants.  They  are 
commonly  simple  and  very  minute  cells,  and 
they  contain  no  embryo.  The  dust  that  flies 
from  a  common  puff-ball  is  made  up  of 
spores,  as  represented  at  Fig. 
4.  Some  spores  are  made  up 
of  two  or  more  cells,  as  shown 
in  Fig.  5.  Spores  are  usually 
borne  in  some  kind  of  a  spore-case. 

With  an  idea  of  what  con- 
stitutes a  spore,  a  seed,  a  fruit, 
and  with  a  common  knowl- 
edge of  flowers,  we  are  pre- 
pared to  understand  in  a  gen- 
Fig.  5.  eral  way 

The  Leading  Subdivisions  of  the  Vegetable 
Kingdom.. 

Botanists  commonly  recognize  two  great 
sub-kingdoms  of  plants,  known  as  the  flower- 
less  and  flowering  plants,  or  the  cryptogams 
and  phenogams.  The  flowerless  plants  are 


CLASSES   OF  CRYPTOGAMS. 

spore-bearing,  while  the  flowering  are  seed- 
bearing.  The  flowerless  plants  are  far  the 
more  numerous,  and  the  greater  part  of 
them  are  as  yet  very  imperfectly  understood. 
On  account  of  our  imperfect  knowledge  of 
them,  together  with  numerous  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  studying  the  lower  species,  there 
is  no  generally  accepted  method  of  classify- 
ing them.  For  our  purpose  it  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  flowerless  plants  are  divided  into 
Fungi,  Alga3,  Lichens,  Mosses,  and  Ferns. 
There  are  two  important  facts,  which  we 
may  profitably  consider,  relating  to  the 
methods  by  which  these  plants  gain  sus- 
tenance. There  are  two  classes  of  plant 
foods :  one  is  composed  of  substances  which 
are  found  in  the  earth  and  the  air,  such  as 
water,  carbonic  acid  gas,  lime,  potash,  and 
ammonia,  commonly  designated  inorganic 
substances ;  the  other  is  composed  of  mate- 
rials which  are  made  out  of  these  inorganic 
substances  by  the  plant  itself,  such  as  woody 
fibre,  starch,  and  other  vegetable  or  organic 
products.  Most  of  the  plants  which  we  ob- 
serve possess  the  power  of  making  over  in- 
organic or  earthy  materials  into  organized 
or  vegetable  materials ;  or,  in  technical  lan- 
guage, they  assimilate.  All  such  plants  con- 


6  TALKS  AFIELD. 

tain  green  or  red  coloring  matters.  Some 
plants,  however,  of  which  mushrooms  are 
examples,  live  entirely  upon  organic  matter 
in  something  the  same  manner  as  animals 
do ;  they  must  therefore  live  upon  decaying 
substances,  when  they  are  known  as  sapro- 
phytic  plants,  or  upon  live  plants  or  ani- 
mals, when  they  are  known  as  parasitic. 

In  a  general  way  we  may  say  that  the 
lowest  class  of  plants  are  the  FUNGI.  The 
plants  which  are  commonly  included  under 
this  term  are  exceedingly  numerous,  and 
their  individual  characters  are  extremely  va- 
riable. Some  of  them  are  so  small  as  to 
be  seen  with  difficulty  through  the  best  mi- 
croscopes, while  the  largest  are  gi- 
ant puff-balls  which  weigh  many 
pounds.  The  fungi  all  live  upon 
organic  matter,  —  they  are  either 
saprophytic  or  parasitic.  Most  of 
them  are  grayish  or  neutral-tinted. 
The  lowest  and  the  most  minute 
of  all  known  organized  structures 
are  the  Bacteria.  Under  this  de- 
nomination are  included  great  num- 
bers  of  microscopic  plants,  which 
)g' 6*  are  very  imperfectly  understood. 
They  are  simple  in  structure,  each  individ- 


BACTERIA.  1 

ual  consisting  of  a  single  cell.  (Fig.  6.) 
They  are  often  united  into  chains  or  masses. 
A  bacterium  multiplies  by  dividing  into  two 
individuals,  these  two  individuals  again  di- 
viding, and  so  on  in  a  geometrical  progres- 
sion. A  simple  calculation  will  demonstrate 
how  enormous  must  in  a  few  days  be  the  in- 
crease if  this  progressive  breaking  in  two 
continues  unmolested  at  intervals  of  an  hour 
or  two.  Professor  Cohn  calculates  that 
from  one  of  these  minute  organisms  suffi- 
cient numbers  will  have  been  reproduced  in 
five  days  to  fill  full  the  oceans  of  the  world ! 
Ordinarily  these  plants  are  not  more  than 
•3-50-5  °f  an  incn  in  thickness,  while  many  are 
much  smaller.  Indeed,  it  is  highly  probable 
that  there  are  many  species  so  minute  that 
our  best  microscopes  have  not  yet  revealed 
them.  Of  the  ordinary  kinds  an  aggrega- 
tion of  from  one  hundred  to  three  hundred 
placed  side  by  side  would  not  exceed  in 
length  the  thickness  of  this  paper.  Most 
bacteria,  and  perhaps  all,  have  the  power  of 
moving  spontaneously.  They  whirl,  quiver, 
move  slowly  and  steadily,  or  perhaps  dart 
rapidly  across  the  field  of  the  microscope. 
In  color  they  are  usually  white,  although 
some  species  possess  beautiful  tints  of  red, 


8  TALKS   AFIELD. 

of  blue,  of  yellow,  or  even  green.  Occasion- 
ally the  housewife  is  arrested  in  her  work 
by  the  appearance  of  blood-colored  spots  on 
cold  potatoes  or  other  articles  of  food,  and 
as  likely  as  not  she  half  accepts  the  old  su- 
perstition which  supposed  them  to  indicate 
the  anger  of  God ;  she  does  not  suspect  that 
the  spots  are  aggregations  of  many  minute 
living  plants  which  have  come  from  the  air. 
Bacteria  are  nearly  everywhere  present,  in 
the  air,  in  all  stagnant  or  impure  water,  in 
all  fermenting  and  decaying  substances,  and 
often  in  the  human  body.  When  moist  sub- 
stances in  which  they  grow  become  dried 
up,  they  wither  and  escape  as  dust  into  the 
atmosphere  to  be  revivified  when  again  they 
fall  under  favorable  conditions.  In  the  air 
near  the  suburbs  of  Paris  M.  Miguel  finds 
an  average  of  about  eighty  bacteria  to  every 
square  yard  of  air.  Some  of  these,  mag- 
nified a  thousand  times,  are 
shown  in  Fig.  7.  The  floating- 
dust  in  the  sunbeam  is  com- 
posed of  larger  bodies  than 
these  bacteria.  It  is  made  up 
largely  of  fragments  of  lint,  of 
Fig-  7.  spores  of  moulds,  and  of  pol- 
len of  flowers.  It  is  clearly  demonstrated 


BACTERIA—  YEAST  PLANTS.  9 

that  to  the  bacteria  are  due  many  diseases 
of  man  and  the  lower  animals,  and  perhaps 
of  common  plants  as  well.  Among  such  dis- 
eases are  anthrax  and  splenic  fever  in  cat- 
tle, and  small-pox,  scarlet  fever,  and  proba- 
bly consumption,  cholera,  and  other  scourges 
of  the  human  race.  Pure  water  contains  no 
life,  but  the  water  of  ditches,  of  stagnant 
pools,  of  impure  cisterns,  contains  myriads 
of  these  minute  plants.  The  souring  of 
milk  and  many  changes  of  fermentation  are 
due  to  them.  They  are  also  the  cause  of  de- 
cay. While  they  themselves  depend  for  life 
upon  the  organic  products  of  other  plants 
and  of  animals,  they  are  the  direct  means  of 
reducing  all  organic  life  to  decay  and  disin- 
tegration. They  hold  the  keys  of  life  ;  they 
complete  the  grand  cycle  of  nature  by  which 
all  living  things  return  to  the  earth  from 
whence  they  came. 

A  little  higher  in  the  scale  of  existence 
are  the  Yeast  Plants.    These 
minute  bodies  are  propagated 
rapidly   in    yeast    and   other 
ferments,  and  by  their  physi- 
ological   action    produce    im-          FiS- 8- 
portant    chemical    changes.      The    invisible 
plants  which  spring  up  in  bread  yeast  give 


10 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


off  carbonic  acid  gas  and  alcohol,  which,  in 
their  escape,  puff  up  the  dough,  causing  it 
to  "  rise."  A  yeast  plant  magnified  nearly 
eight  hundred  times  is  shown  in  its  differ- 
ent stages  at  Fig.  8. 

The  Moulds  which  grow  on  nearly  all  de- 
caying substances  have  a  greater 

external    semblance 

to  the  common  idea 

of  a  plant  than  have 

the  yeast  plants  and 

bacteria.     Fig.  9 

represents  the  bread 

mould  magnified, 
the  spores  escaping  from  the 
apex.  Fig.  10  shows  the  cheese 
mould 


Fig.  10. 


Fig.  11. 


with  the  fruit  borne 
in  a  different  man- 
ner. 

Under  the  com- 
mon denominations 
of  Rust,  Mildew, 
and  Blight  are  in- 
cluded many  very 
dissimilar  kinds  of 
f  un  gi .  They  are 


parasites,  which  commonly  attack  the  leaves 


MOULDS  AND  RUSTS. 


11 


and  young  shoots  of  flowering  plants,  often 
causing  great  annoyance  to  the  farmer. 
The  grape  mildew  is  a  familiar  example. 
When  the  leaves  are  attacked  they  show  the 
disorder  in  yellowish-brown  patches  on  the 
upper  side,  and  soon  after  they  become  sere 
and  dead.  The  under  surface  of  the  leaf 
will  reveal  to  the  searching  eye  the  cause  of 
the  trouble.  There  will  be  seen  thin,  frost- 
like  patches,  as  represented  in  Fig.  11.  Un- 
der the  microscope,  each  of  these  patches  is 
seen  to  be  made  up  of  a 
forest  of  such  objects  as 
appear  in  Fig.  12.  This 
picture  represents  a  grape 
leaf  cut  across,  the  line 
n  m  showing  the  upper 
surface,  and  o  p  the 
lower  surface  of  the  leaf. 
Among  the  cells  of  the 
leaf  the  root-like  threads 
of  the  fungus,  c  c,  are 
searching  for  food.  The 


Fig.  12. 


tree-like  object  above  bears  numerous  globu- 
lar buds,  which  drop  off  and  act  as  spores 
in  reproducing  the  plant.  These  buds  are 
killed  by  the  action  of  frost ;  they  are  there- 
fore often  called  "summer  spores."  The 


12 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


genuine  spores,  or  "  resting  spores,"  are  in 
the  substance  of  the  leaf  itself.  The  rust  of 
wheat,  the  scab  on  apples,  and  many  other 
forms  of  plant  diseases 
are  similar  in  nature  to 
the  grape  mildew.  The 
manner  in  which  the 
spores  of  some  fungi  are 
borne  is  shown  in  Fig.  13,  which  represents 
a  magnified  cross-section  of  the  plum-knot, 
so  much  dreaded  by  horticulturists.  In  the 
peculiar  club-shaped  receptacles  or  asci  are 
seen  the  spores. 

The  Polypores  include  those  peculiar 
shelf  -  like  f  uiigi 
which  grow  on 
logs  and  decaying 
trees.  They  may 
be  recognized  by 
a  reference  to 
Fig.  14.  These 
fungi  are  pecul- 
iar in  having  a 
hard  and  dura- 
ble substance,  al- 
though a  few  of 
them  are  soft  in 


Fig.  14. 


texture.      The   genus   Polyporus    comprises 


MUSHROOMS.  13 

the  greater  part  of  our  common  shelf -fungi. 
The  polypores  are  so  named  from  the  nu- 
merous pores  which  sharp  eyes  may  often 
discover  on  their  under  surface.  In  these  lit- 
tle holes  the  spores  are  borne.  Some  of  the 
soft  polypores  are  edible,  while  some  of  the 
corky  ones  are  tough  enough  to  be  cut  into 
excellent  razor-strops.  Some  of  the  larger 
species  attain  a  horizontal  diameter  of  three 
or  four  feet.  A  beautiful  species  in  Guinea 
is  worshiped  by  the  natives. 

The  Puff-balls,  Mushrooms,  and  Toad' 
stools  are  remarkable  for  their  rapid  growth, 
and  often  for  their  great  size,  peculiar  colors, 
and  curious  shapes.  They  are  widely  dis- 
tributed over  the  earth,  but  are  most  abun- 
dant in  moist  and  warm  climates.  They 
grow  upon  nearly  all  kinds  of  decaying  mat- 
ter. Occasionally  they  prove  the  presence 
of  decaying  substances  where  one  would 
least  expect  it ;  they  spring  up  in  a  night, 
from  dry  pastures  and  lawns.  The  genus 
Agaricus  includes  the  mushrooms,  of  which 
there  are  no  less  than  a  thousand  species. 
The  Agaricus  campestris,  "field  agaric,"  is 
now  extensively  grown  in  vegetable  gar- 
dens. If  we  were  to  examine  critically  this 
mushroom  in  its  early  stages  of  growth,  we 


14 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


would  find  a  mesh  of  underground  root-like 
fibres,  with  little  mushrooms 
springing  from  them,  as  in 
Fig.  15.  This  mesh  is 
known  to  gardeners  as  the 
"  spawn,"  and  it  is  what 
they  plant ;  to  the  botanist 
it  is  the  mycelium.  A  full- 
grown  mushroom  is  shown 
Fig- 15.  in  Yig.  16.  Underneath 

the  conical  top  are  shown  the  "  gills  "  upon 

which  is  borne  the  fruit. 

Many    of    our    common 

mushrooms   and    similar 

fungi  are  highly  esteemed 

as  articles  of  food.    There 

is  no  criterion,  however, 

by  which  the  non-bota- 
nist can  distinguish  the 

good    species    from    the 

noxious  ones.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  poisonous 

character    of    many    of 


Fig.  16. 


them  has  been  much  exaggerated,  although 
there  is  no  doubt  that  some  of  them  are 
dangerously  noxious.  M.  A.  Curtis,  a  well- 
known  Southern  botanist,  subsisted  largely 
upon  fungi  during  the  straitened  periods  of 


SEA- WEEDS.  15 

our  civil  war,  and  he  urged  the  soldiers  to 
resort  to  mushrooms  instead  of  poor  beef. 
In  North  Carolina  he  found  seventy-eight 
edible  species. 

The  ALG.E  include  the  sea-weeds  and 
many  minute  or  inconspicuous  green  plants 
which  inhabit  pools  and  lakes.  Here  are 
included  plants  which,  in  varieties  of  size,  of 
shape,  and  of  structure,  exceed  the  wildest 
pictures  of  the  imagination.  Microscopic 
diamond-shaped  or  globular  or  irregular  and 
curiously  marked  objects  which  swim  in 
ponds  and  deep  seas,  more  like  animals  than 
plants ;  delicate  threads  of  green,  more  slen- 
der than  a  spider's  web,  which  form  the 
scum  on  ponds  and  the  green  tints  on  old 
boards  and  roofs;  fairy-like  feathers  and 
tresses  of  beautiful  red,  which  make  up  the 
"  flowers  of  the  ocean  ; "  broad,  leathery, 
and  sombre  "  devil's  aprons,"  large  enough 
to  load  down  a  man ;  curiously  punctured 
"  sea-cullenders ; "  great  tree-like  plants 
which  make  forests  under  the  seas  ;  —  these 
are  some  of  the  forms  of  algae.  The  ocean  has 
a  wonderful  flora,  and  scarcely  less  wonder- 
ful is  the  varied  plant-life  of  every  pond  and 
pool.  The  ocean  and  fresh  waters  support 
their  peculiar  kinds  of  these  flowerless  plants. 


16  TALKS  AFIELD. 

They  all  agree,  however,  in  possessing  the 
one  important  power  of  assimilating,  of  ob- 
taining their  living  from  the  inorganic  mat- 
ters which  are  contained  in  water,  and  they 
therefore  necessarily  contain  leaf-green  or 
other  equivalent  coloring  matters.  In  the 
power  of  assimilating  they  differ  essentially 
from  all  fungi. 

Peculiar  to  fresh  water  are  the  Desmids,  a 
few  species  of  which  are  highly  magnified 
in  Fig.  17.  These  microscopic 
plants  are  composed  of  one  cell, 
and  are  bright  green  in  color.  On 
account  of  their  spontaneous  move- 
ments they  were  long  regarded  as 
animals,  but  their  methods  of  re- 
Fig.  17.  production  class  them  with  plants. 
The  power  of  moving  from  one  place  to 
another  is  not  now  regarded  as  at  all  in- 
compatible with  the  idea  of  a  plant.  The 
desmids,  as  well  as  many  other  of  the 
lower  plants,  have  two  kinds  of  reproduc- 
tion :  one  is  a  dividing  of  the  plant  into  two, 
and  the  other  is  a  reproduction  by  means  of 
spores. 

The  Diatoms  are  much  like  the  desmids, 
and  for  a  long  time  they  also  were  supposed 
to  be  animals.  From  the  desmids  they  dif- 


DIATOMS.  17 

fer  in  their  yellowish-brown  color  and  their 
very  peculiar  siliceous  shells.  When  the 
plant  dies  the  shell  remains  and  settles  to 
the  bottom  of  the  ocean  or  the  lake.  Ag- 
gregations of  these  shells  harden  into  rock. 
Many  durable  flint  rocks  of  dry  lands  are 
found  to  be  made  up  entirely  of  them,  the 
same  as  chalk  is  known  to  be  composed  of 
the  shells  of  minute  animals.  In  some 
places  the  floor  of  the  ocean  is  now  being 
slowly  covered  with  these  remains, 
which  will  gradually  harden  into  im- 
pervious rock.  Of  all  plants,  the 
diatoms  are  the  most  widely  distrib- 
uted. They  abound  amid  the  ice  in 
the  polar  seas,  in  hot  springs,  at  a 
depth  of  two  thousand  feet  in  the 
ocean,  sometimes  on  mosses  and  other  lg> 
plants  which  grow  in  moist  places,  and  every- 
where on  submerged  sticks  and  stones,  upon 
which  they  often  make  a  slimy  covering. 
In  the  ocean  the  diatoms  are  eaten  by  mol- 
lusks,  which  in  turn  are  eaten  by  fish,  and 
the  fish  are  eaten  by  birds.  The  little  shells 
are  often  found  intact  in  beds  of  guano. 
Many  interesting  species  have  been  discov- 
ered in  the  stomachs  of  fish. 

One  of  the  most  marvelous  of  all  plants  is 
2 


18 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


the  so-called  Red  Snow  of  the  arctic  regions 
(^  (^  and  high  mountains.  (Fig.  19.) 
@  This  "  snow,"  which  has  been  so 
Fig.  19.  long  regarded  with  wonder,  is  an 
aggregation  of  immense  quantities  of  a  mi- 
nute red  alga,  known  to  botanists  as  Proto- 
coccus  nivalis.  It  is  almost  incredible  that 
at  such  low  temperatures  any  plant  can  grow 
so  rapidly.  The  red  snow  was  known  to 
Aristotle,  and  was  probably  observed  by  him 
on  the  mountains  of  Macedonia. 

Among  the  visible  algce  are  numbers  of 
species  which  form  the  slime  on 
stagnant  pools  and  the  green  films 
on  flower-pots  and  boards.  A 
thread  of  the  common  zygnema, 
which  makes  much  of  the  scum  on 
frog-ponds,  is  magnified  in  Fig.  20, 
and  the  spiral  band  of  leaf-green 
which  imparts  the  characteristic 
color  is  plainly  shown.  Every  one 
who  has  wandered  on  the  beach  of 
the  ocean  is  familiar  with  numer- 
ous forms  of  the  higher  and  larger 
alga3.  These  curious  and  often 
beautiful  plants  lend  a  peculiar 
charm  to  the  sea  ;  they  force  upon 
one  the  thought  that  many  wonderful  pro- 


.  20. 


LICHENS.  19 

ductions  are  entirely  hidden  from  human 
sight,  and  they  afford  a  proof  that  organic 
life  is  universally  distributed.  Our  com- 
mon sea-weeds  do  not  grow  at  great  depths  ; 
they  abound  along  the  coast,  where  they 
cling  to  rocks,  to  shells,  and  to  each  other. 
In  warm  temperate  and  tropical  countries 
the  red  species  are  numerous  and  very  beau- 
tiful. The  waters  of  the  Great  Lakes  are 
remarkable  for  their  entire  lack  of  visible 
algae.  Many  sea-weeds  are  edible,  the  most 
widely  known  being  the  Irish  moss. 

The  LICHENS  include  a  great  variety  of 
peculiar  plants  which 
are  in  many  respects 
like  fungi.  They  dif- 
fer from  the  fungi  in 
not  being  saprophytic 
or  parasitic,  and  in 

growing    much    slower 

Fig.  21. 
and    enduring    longer. 

Every  one  knows  the  dry,  gray  "  moss  "  on 
stones,  logs,  and  the  trunks  of  trees.  (Fig. 
21.)  Nearly  all  lichens  draw  their  nourish- 
ment from  the  air  and  rain,  although  a  few 
live  in  water.  In  the  interior  of  the  gray 
mass  of  the  lichen  are  green  or  yellowish 
granules,  which  possess  the  power  of  assimi- 


20  TALKS  AFIELD. 

lating.  These  granules,  or  gonidia,  are  rep- 
resented by  the  black  dots  in  Fig.  22.  A 
peculiar  discussion  has 
arisen  in  late  years,  in 
regard  to  the  true  nature 
of  these  gonidia,  and 
some  botanists  contend 
that  they  are  not  a  part 
s-  22'  of  the  lichen  at  all,  but 

are  algaB,  and  that  the  surrounding  gray  por- 
tion is  a  fungus  which  draws  its  nourishment, 
in  a  parasitical  way,  from  these  alga3.  This 
view  does  away  with  the  great  group  of 
lichens,  and  resolves  these  plants  into  fungi 
which  are  parasitic  on  or  about  alga3.  We 
will  follow  the  old  and  common  method, 
however,  of  calling  these  plants,  with  their 
gonidia,  lichens.  Lichens  are  reproduced 
by  means  of  spores  in  very  much  the  same 
manner  as  many  fungi.  Of  all  visible 
plants,  lichens  possess  the  power  of  adapting 
themselves  to  the  widest  differences  of  cli- 
mate and  surroundings.  They  are  at  home 
under  the  snows  of  the  polar  regions,  and 
equally  so  in  the  burning  sun  of  warmer  cli- 
mates, where  they  wither  in  drouth  and  re- 
vivify in  rain.  They  increase  as  we  travel 
northward  or  southward  from  the  equator. 


MOSSES. 


21 


Some  of  the  lichens  are  edible  and  others 
are  medicinal,  while  a  number  are  important 
sources  of  dyes. 

Under  the  general  term  MOSSES  or  Musci 
are  included  two  very  dissimilar  orders  of 
plants.  One  order,  known  as  Liverworts  or 
Hepaticce,  includes  plants  which  have  little 
or  no  distinction  of  root,  stem,  and  leaf. 
The  frond  or  main  portion  of  the  plant 
spreads  out  over  the  ground  much  after  the 
manner  of  a  green  lichen,  and  from  this 


Fig.  23. 

shapeless  form  the  fruit  stalks  arise.  One 
of  the  commonest  species  is  figured,  about 
natural  size,  in  Fig.  23.  On  account  of  the 
many  different  forms  which  this  plant  as- 
sumes, it  is  known  as  the  "many-formed 
Marchantia,"  Marchantia  polymorpha.  The 
fertile  or  spore-bearing  plant  is  shown  at 


22  TALKS  AFIELD. 

the  right  in  the  figure,  and  the  sterile  at  the 
left. 

The  true  Mosses  are  familiar  to  all. 
They  are  widely  distributed  over  the  earth, 
abounding  most  in  cool  and  moist  woods. 
Their  graceful  forms  and  crisp  appearance 
have  always  won  for  them  a  place  in  popu- 
lar favor.  We  can  all  recall  scenes  of  cool 
and  quiet  woods  where 

Cleanly  moss  in  patches  lay 

In  darksome  nooks  unseen  ;• 
And  murmuring  rills  with  laughter  play 

'Mid  mounds  of  freshest  green  ;  — 
Where  Nature  clothed  her  scars  and  dross 

With  bright  and  seemly  mats  of  moss. 

About  nine  hundred  different  species  of 
mosses  occur  in  North  America  north  of 
Mexico.  The  structure  of  a  moss  may  be 
readily  learned  by  a  reference  to  Fig.  24, 
which  represents  the  common  pigeon-wheat 
moss  that  grows  on  dry  knolls.  At  the  top 
of  the  thread-like  stem  is  seen  the  fruit. 
The  stem  at  the  left  shows  the  immature 
fruit,  which  is  covered  by  a  hairy  cap  or  ca- 
lyptra.  As  the  fruit  matures  this  calyptra 
falls  off  and  discloses  the  capsule  or  pod  as 
represented  at  the  right.  An  enlarged  cap- 
sule is  shown  in  Fig.  25.  On  its  top  is  a 
lid  or  cover  which  falls  off  when  the  fruit 


FERNS. 


23 


is  fully  mature,  and  lets  the  many  minute 
spores  escape. 

The  highest  of  the 
large  divisions  of  flow- 
erless  plants  are  the 
FERNS.  Of  all  plants, 
these  are  probably  the 
most  generally  a  d- 
mired.  Among 
them  are  to  be 
found  the  great- 
est variety  of 
forms,  of  size, 
and  of  texture. 
The  little  Tri-  Fig.  25. 
chomanes  Petersii  of 
Alabama  is  scarcely  an 
inch  high,  while  some 
of  the  species  of  the 
tropics  are  in  size  and 
appearance  like  trees. 
Some  creep  along  on 
the  ground  and  over 
rocks,  while  others 
climb  high  on  bushes. 

They  inhabit  every  cool  retreat  in  wood  and 
glade,  and  offset,  by  their  delicate  texture, 
the  aspects  of  coarser  plants.  The  species 


24  TALKS   AFIELD. 

which  occur  in  the  United  States  east  of 
the  Mississippi  are  over  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  in  number.  Of  these  probably 
the  greater  part  are  not  recognized  by  the 
casual  observer.  A  few  of  them  grow  in 
dry  and  open  places  and  in  sunny  swales 
where  they  are  popularly  known  as  brakes. 
Three  or  four  of  them  are  troublesome  weeds 
to  the  farmer.  Some  of  them  are  evergreen 
and  may  be  seen  in  winter  protruding  from 
the  snow  on  hillsides.  When  transplanted 
to  the  garden  many  of  the  species  grow  well 
and  are  highly  ornamental.  It  is  impera- 
tive, however,  that  they  be  planted  in  a 
shady  place  which  is  protected  from  strong 
winds.  In  former  years  the  propagation  of 
ferns  was  regarded  as  a  great  mystery.  No 
flowers  or  seeds  could  be  detected  by  the 
curious.  In  Shakespeare's  time  the  mystic 
"  fern  seed "  was  supposed  to  be  a  potent 
agent  in  the  incantations  of  witches.  The 
whole  process  of  the  reproduction  of  ferns 
is  now  understood,  and  nearly  every  one  is 
familiar  with  the  peculiar  dots  of  fruit  on 
the  backs  of  the  fronds  or  leaves.  Fig.  26 
illustrates  the  fruit-dots  on  the  common  rock 
polypody.  If  we  magnify  one  of  these  fruit- 
dots  we  find  it  to  be  composed  of  many 


FERNS. 


25 


Fig.  27. 


Fig.  26. 


globular  bodies  as  in  Fig. 
27.  By  taking  a  side  view 
we  discover  that  each  of 
these  bodies  is  raised  on  a 
stalk.  (Fig.  28.)  Inside 
each  of  these  bodies  are 
born  nu- 
merous 
spores. 
It  fre- 
quently 
occurs 
that  the 
fertile  leaf,  that  which  bears 
the  spore-cases  on  its  back, 
is  oddly  contracted  and 
rolled  up,  so  that  it  loses 
nearly  all  resemblance  to 
a  leaf. 
Ferns 
with  the 
fertile 
frond  transformed  in  this 
manner  are  often  called 
"  flowering  ferns."  One 
is  represented  in  Fig.  29. 
One  of  the  most  peculiar 
of  all  ferns  is  that  known 


^ 28' 


26 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


as  the  walking-leaf  fern.  (Fig.  30.)  The 
tips  of  the  slender  fronds  bend  to  the  ground 
and  take  root.  This  interesting  species  is 
common  in  many  parts  of  the  Central  States. 


Fig.  29. 

Another  fern  of  our  cool  woods  bears  little 
bulblets  on  the  frond,  and  these  bulblets  fall 
off  and  reproduce  the  parent.  The  odd  lit- 
tle schizaBa,  perhaps  the  rarest  of  ferns,  a 
plant  for  which  the  collector  searches  indus- 


CLUB  MOSSES  —  EQUISETUMS.  27 

triously  in  the  low  pine  barrens  of  New  Jer- 
sey, is  pictured  life-size  in  Fig.  31. 

There  are  a  few  remaining  small 
orders  of  flowerless  plants,  but  with 
two  exceptions  their  members  are 
not  sufficiently  known  to  warrant  a 
description  here.  These  two  excep- 


Fig.  30. 

tions   are   the   CLUB   MOSSES   and 
the  EQUISETUMS  or  HORSE  TAILS. 
Club  mosses  are   largely  used    for 
decorative    purposes    at    Christmas    Fl£-31- 
time ;  indeed,  they  furnish  almost  the  entire 
supply  of  winter  "  evergreen  "  in  the  East. 
There  are  less  than  a  dozen  species  in  the 


28 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


eastern  United  States.  A  reference  to  Fig. 
32  will  show  how  they  differ 
from  true  mosses :  the  fruit 
is  borne  in  a  peculiar  spike, 
which  is  made  up  of  many 
spore  cases.  The  Horse 
Tails  are  often  known  as 
scouring  rushes,  from  the 
use  to  which  they 
are  put  on  ac- 
count of  the  great 
quantity  of  si  lex 
contained  in  their 
stalks.  They  are  Fig'33' 
odd-looking  plants, 
readily  recognized  by  a  reference  to  Fig.  33. 
In  former  ages  plants  similar  to  these  at- 
tained to  the  size  of  trees. 

Having  taken  a  cursory  glance  at  the 
flowerless  plants,  we  will  now  turn  our  atten- 
tion to 


Fig.  32. 


AN  APPLE  FLOWER. 


29 


SOME  OF  THE   MOST  INTERESTING  FEA- 
TURES OF  FLOWERING  PLANTS. 

Our  first  duty  will  be  to  find  out  what  a 
flower  is,  and  to  do  this  we  must  pull  one 
to  pieces  and  see  of  what  it  is  composed. 


Fig.  34. 

Let  us  pick  a  cluster  of  flowers  from  an 
apple-tree.  The  first  thing  that  attracts  our 
attention  in  this  cluster  is  the  beautiful 
color,  the  delicate  blush  or  pure  white  of  the 
flowers.  The  first  glance  may  discover  no 
other  parts  in  the  flowers  than  these  showy 
"  leaves."  A  closer  look  will  reveal  five 


30  TALKS  AFIELD. 

green  "  leaves  "  beneath  the  colored  ones,  as 
shown  in  the  half -opened  flowers  in  the  clus- 
ter. To  distinguish  these  two  distinct  sets 
of  floral  leaves,  botanists  designate  the 
showy  ones  petals  and  the  green  ones  sepals. 
Both  together  they  constitute  the  floral  en- 
velope. The  petals  and  sepals  appear  dis- 
tinct enough  from  each  other  in  the  apple 
flower,  but  we  shall  find  flowers  in  which 
they  are  very  much  alike.  In  the  centre  of 
each  blossom  are  delicate  threads.  A  flower 
cut  in  two  lengthwise  (as  in  Fig.  46,  page 
56)  will  disclose  these  inner  organs.  Of 
these  organs  there  are  plainly  two  kinds. 
Those  on  the  outside  bear  yellow  boxes  on 
their  ends.  These  threads,  with  their  boxes, 
are  the  stamens ;  the  boxes  are  the  anthers. 
If  the  anther  is  enlarged,  as  in  Fig. 
35,  it  is  seen  to  be  composed  of  two 
boxes  lying  parallel  to  each  other, 
each  one  opening  by  a  slit  on  its  outer 
Flg<  35*  side.  From  this  slit  the  pollen,  a  fine 
yellow  dust,  is  escaping.  The  inner  organs 
in  Fig.  46  are  totally  unlike  the  stamens. 
Of  these  organs  there  are  apparently  three, 
all  united  below  into  one  and  to  the  little 
apple  which  we  have  cut  through  at  the 
base.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  this  miniature 


MARSH-MARIGOLD.  31 

apple  with  its  three-parted  projection  is  one 
compound  organ.  This  organ  is  the  pistil. 
The  apple  part  is  the  ovary,  the  parted  pro- 
jection is  the  style,  and  the  five  little  flat- 
tened tips  are  the  stigmas.  We  have  now 
discovered  all  the  leading  parts  of  the  apple 
flower,  —  the  sepals,  the  petals,  the  stamens 
with  their  anthers,  and  the  pistil  with  its 
ovary,  three-parted  style,  and  three  stigmas. 
We  will  now  apply  our  knowledge  to  the 
common  marsh-marigold  or  "  cowslip,"  which 
gladdens  every  meadow  swale  in  early  spring. 
(Fig.  36.)  In  this  flower  the  sepals,  appar- 
ently, are 
not  present. 
Here  we 
must  r  e- 
member  ar- 
bitrarily 
that  when  Fig.  36. 

either  row  of  the  floral  envelope  is  wanting, 
the  botanist  supposes  that  the  petals  are  the 
missing  organs.  It  is  therefore  necessary  to 
call  the  showy  petal-like  leaves  of  the  marsh- 
marigold  the  sepals.  Such  showy  sepals 
are  petaloid  or  "  petal-like."  The  short  sta- 
mens and  pistils  in  the  centre  of  the  flower 
are  clearly  recognized,  but  instead  of  one 


32 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


pistil  there  are  many  closely  packed  together 
and  bearing  no  styles  ;  all  there  is  to  these 
pistils  is  a  little  ovary  and  a  minute  sessile 
stigma.     These  ovaries    ripen  into  pods    or 
fruit,  like  Fig.  37.     The  flowers  of  the  but- 
tercup,   of    the    wind    flowers    or 
anemones,    of    the    clematis,    of 
the  pretty  hepatica  or  liver-leaf, 
and  other  plants,  are  made  up  in 
essentially  the  same    manner   as 
Fig.  37.       those  of  the  marsh-marigold,  and 
they  are  therefore  all  united  into  one  fam- 
ily, the  Crowfoots.     If  we  examine  the  morn- 
ing-glory flower  in 
Fig.  38  we  notice  at 
once  that  the  petals 
are  all  united  into 
one  bell.    Since  we 
cannot     speak     of 
the  petals  individ- 
ually, we  must  now 
speak  of  them  col- 
lectively; wethere- 
Fig-38'  fore  call   the   beU 

the  corolla.  But  even  if  the  petals  were  not 
united  we  could  properly  speak  of  them  col- 
lectively as  the  corolla.  The  sepals,  taken 
together  in  like  manner,  may  be  styled  the 


MINT- ASH—  WILLOW.  33 

calyx.     In  the  mint  flower,  Fig.  39,  the  pet- 
als are  united  in  a  peculiarly  irregular  man- 


Fig.  39.  Fig.  40. 

ner.  If  we  were  to  pick  one  of  the  dark 
purple  clusters  which  are  seen  on  the  bare 
twigs  of  the  ash  in  early  spring,  we  should 
discover  that  it  is  made  up  of  many  flowers. 
One  of  these  flowers  is  shown  in  Fig.  40. 
It  has  no  calyx,  no  corolla,  simply  two  sta- 
mens and  a  styleless  pistil.  We  pick  a 
gold-dusted  c  c  p  u  s  s  y  ' : 
from  a  willow,  examine 
it  closely,  and  find  it  to 
be  made  up  of  many  lit- 
tle flowers  like  a  in  Fig. 
41.  Each  of  these  little 
flowers  is  composed  sole- 
ly of  two  anthers  which 
are  subtended  by  a  mi- 
nute scale  !  Let  us  find 
another  willow  bush  «  Fig- 
which  bears  greener  and  less  conspicuous 


34 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


Fig.  42. 


"  pussies."     These  "  pussies  "  are  made  up 
entirely  of  flowers  which  are  composed  of 

one  pistil !  (Fig. 
42.)  Finally,  we 
inquire  into  the 
ways  of  the  snow- 
ball or  hydran- 
gea in  the  gar- 
den. Each  of  the 
flowers  which  go 
to  make  up  the 
snowy  balls  is 
found  to  consist  of  nothing  but  a  calyx  and 
corolla ! 

How  shall  we  define  a  flower  ?  It  is  not 
essential  that  any  flower  have  showy  colors, 
or  sepals,  or  petals,  or  stamens,  or  pistils. 
And  we  might  even  take  exception  to  Web- 
ster's careful  definition  that  the  flower  is 
"that  part  of  a  plant  which  is  destined  to 
produce  seed,"  for  the  flowers  of  the  culti- 
vated snow-ball  and  the  outer  ones  on  the 
heads  of  all  sunflowers  and  the  stamen- 
flower  of  the  willow  cannot  produce  seeds. 
This  definition  may  be  regarded  as  in  the 
main  correct,  however,  and  the  so-called 
neutral  flowers  are  to  be  looked  upon  as 
anomalies.  Outside  the  sunflower  family 


THE  FLOWER.  35 

these  flowers  are  of  rare  occurrence,  unless 
they  are  produced  by  cultivation,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  snow-ball.  If  our  definition  in- 
cludes the  stamen-bearing  flower  of  the  wil- 
low we  must  modify  it  after  this  manner: 
The  flower  is  that  part  of  the  plant  which  is 
destined  to  produce  or  to  aid  directly  in 
producing  the  seed.  The  office  whiqh  the 
stamen-flower  exerts  in  aiding  to  produce 
the  seed  will  be  discussed  at  another  time. 
(Page  77  et  seq.) 

It  now  remains  to  find  names  for  some 
of  the  different  kinds  of  flowers.  A  flower 
which  has  calyx,  corolla,  and  one  or  more 
stamens  and  pistils  is  said  to  be  complete  ; 
if  any  of  these  organs  are  missing  it  is  in- 
complete. One  which  has  only  floral  envel- 
opes, as  the  snow-ball,  is  neutral.  One 
which  contains  both  stamens  and  pistils  is 
perfect ;  when  either  stamens  or  pistils  are 
wanting  it  is  imperfect.  One  bearing  only 
stamens  is  staminate ;  only  pistils,  pistil- 
late. When  a  flower  has  both  calyx  and 
corolla  and  the  petals  are  not  united,  it  is 
polypetalous  ;  when  the  petals  are  united, 
as  in  the  morning-glory  and  mint,  it  is  (jam- 
opetalous  or  monopetalous ;  when  either 
calyx  or  corolla,  or  both,  is  absent,  it  is  apet- 


36  TALKS  AFIELD. 

alous.  When  all  the  sepals,  all  the  petals, 
all  the  stamens,  and  all  the  pistils  are  alike, 
the  flower  is  regular  ;  when  any  or  all  of 
them  are  unlike,  as  in  the  pea  and  bean,  or 
when  a  gamopetalous  corolla  is  not  equally 
lobed,  as  in  the  mint,  it  is  irregular. 

In  this  connection  it  remains  but  to  be 
said  that  flowers  vary  as  widely  in  size  and 
in  appearance  as  they  do  in  essential  struc- 
ture. The  smallest  of  flowers  is  that  of  the 
little  Wolffia  which  floats  on  ponds  through- 
out most  of  the  Northern  States,  the  entire 
plant  being  smaller  than  an  ordinary  pin- 
head.  The  largest  flower  is  that  of  the  Raf- 
flesia,  a  parasitic  plant  of  the  Javan  forests. 
They  are  sometimes  over  a  yard  across. 
Many  flowers  possess  no  colors  other  than 
green.  The  flowers  of  our  grasses  and  ce- 
real grains  are  green  and  usually  inconspic- 
uous, and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  flow- 
ers of  most  forest  trees. 

The  manner  in  which  the  stems  of  flower- 
ing plants  increase  in  diameter  must  next 
demand  our  attention.  There  are  two  gen- 
eral methods  by  which  this  increase  takes 
place.  If  we  cut  off  a  corn-stalk  (Fig.  43) 
we  observe  that  there  are  many  threads  run- 
ning through  it  lengthwise.  A  cross-section 


ENDOGENS  AND  EXOGENS.      37 

of  the  trunk  of  a  palm  would  reveal  a  simi- 
lar structure.  Contrast  with  these  stems  a 
cress-section  of  an  oak,  as  shown  in  Fig.  44. 
In  this  section  there  are  conspicuous  layers 
or  rings  of  wood ;  the  internal  threads  are 
not  to  be  seen.  The  corn-stalk  and  the 
trunk  of  the  palm  increase  in  diameter  by 
the  addition  in  the  interior  of  new  threads 
which  stretch  out  the  surface  of  the  stalk. 
These  plants  are  inside  growers  or  endogens. 


Fig.  43.  Fig.  44. 

The  trunk  of  the  oak  increases  in  diame- 
ter by  the  addition  of  new  wood  in  layers 
near  its  surface.  It  is,  therefore,  an  outside 
grower,  or  an  exogen.  In  the  Northern 
United  States  the  endogens  are  all  herbs, 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  straggling 
green-brier  or  smilax.  In  warmer  climates 
the  endogens  are  represented  largely  by 
palms  and  similar  plants.  It  is  evident 


38  TALKS  AFIELD. 

from  the  manner  in  which  these  inside  grow- 
ers increase  in  diameter  that  there  must  soon 
be  a  limit  to  this  increase.  In  tree-like 
plants  the  outside  or  bark  portion  soon  be- 
comes so  indurated  as  to  resist  further 
stretching,  and  even  if  this  were  not  the  case 
it  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  new  fibres  could 
long  be  added  in  the  interior.  Endogenous 
plants  seldom  become  large  in  diameter. 
Most  palms  are  as  thick  when  they  begin  to 
ascend  from  the  ground  as  they  ever  will  be. 
As  a  rule  palms  do  not  branch  ;  they  grow 
entirely  from  the  terminal  bud,  and  if  this 
bud  be  destroyed  the  plant  perishes.  Endo- 
gens  have  no  true  bark,  none  that  can  be 
readily  stripped  off,  and  they  have  no  pith. 
The  grasses,  sedges,  the  lily  tribe,  the  or- 
chids, and  the  rushes  are  endogenous  plants. 
Exogens  include  our  woody  plants  and  our 
trees,  and  also  many  of  our  herbs.  If  we 
strip  the  bark  from  any  of  our  trees  in 
spring  we  shall  find  a  mucilaginous  covering 
remaining  on  the  wood.  This  covering  is 
being  made  for  the  formation  of  new  wood. 
It  is  cellular  in  character  ;  the  walls  of  its 
minute  cells  are  thin,  and  the  cells  themselves 
contain  building  materials  in  the  liquid  state. 
This  new  layer  is  the  cambium  ;  upon  one  side 


GROWTH  OF  EXOGENS.  39 

it  forms  bark  and  upon  the  other  side  wood. 
When  this  cambium  becomes  hard  the  wood 
portion  is  called  the  sap-wood.  This  sap- 
wood  differs  from  the  heart-wood  in  being 
composed  of  thinner- walled  cells  and  in  con- 
taining more  soluble  or  organic  matters,  but 
it  is  chiefly  distinguished  by  its  lighter  color. 
In  some  trees  it  does  not  appear  distinct  from 
the  heart-wood.  On  account  of  the  climate 
of  temperate  regions  the  making  of  cam- 
bium is  arrested  every  autumn,  and  when  a 
new  layer  is  formed  the  next  spring  a  mark 
is  left  which  defines  the  annual  increase  of 
the  trunk.  In  cold  and  unpropitious  seasons 
the  growth  is  light  and  the  layer  is  thin, 
while  in  moist  and  warm  years  the  layer  is 
much  thicker.  These  layers  are  therefore 
meteorological  records  of  the  years.  It  some- 
times happens  that  a  pinching  drouth  or 
other  cause  will  entirely  arrest  the  forma- 
tion of  cambium  in  early  summer  and  subse- 
quent rains  will  cause  the  growth  to  be  re- 
sumed, but  between  these  two  layers  a  mark 
will  be  left  and  two  rings  will  be  formed 
in  one  season.  The  number -of  rings,  there- 
fore, are  not  always  a  true  index  to  the  age 
of  the  tree.  The  growth  of  the  trunk  causes 
the  dead  outside  bark  to  stretch  and  split. 


40  TALKS  AFIELD. 

and  to  form  ragged  ridges  running  length- 
wise the  trunk.  The  interior  of  exogenous 
stems  is  occupied  by  a  pith  (Fig.  44),  and 
from  this  pith  lines  radiate  in  all  directions. 
These  lines  are  the  medullary  rays.  The 
interior  dark  portion  is  the  heart-wood,  and 
the  outer  light  portion  the  sap-wood.  The 
stems  of  our  exogenous  herbs  increase  in  es- 
sentially the  same  manner  as  the  trunks  of 
trees. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  there  are  pecul- 
iarities of  the  seeds  and  of  the  flowers  of  en- 
dogenous and  of  exogenous  plants  which  dis- 
tinguish the  two  groups  as  readily  as  does 
the  manner  of  growth.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  in  our  study  of  the  bean  on  page 
2  we  discovered  two  seed-leaves  or  cotyle- 
dons. It  is  found  that  the  seeds  of  all  en- 
dogens  contain  but  one  cotyledon,  while 
those  of  exogens  contain  two  or  more.  The 
endogens  are  therefore  often  styled  Mono- 
cotyledons and  the  exogens  Dicotyledons. 
The  parts  of  the  flower  in  the  endogens  are 
usually  in  threes  or  in  multiples  of  three  : 
that  is,  there  are  three,  or  six,  or  nine  sepals 
and  petals  and  stamens  and  pistils,  or  some 
higher  number  which  is  a  multiple  of  three. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  these  organs  be  all 


CLASSIFICATION  OF  PHENOGAMS.        41 

present  in  any  one  flower,  but  such  as  are 
present  fall  under  this  rule.  Thus  a  lily  has 
six  sepals,  six  stamens,  and  a  three-lobed 
pistil.  Exogens,  on  the  contrary,  never  have 
the  parts  of  their  flowers  in  threes  but  usu- 
ally in  fives  or  multiples  of  five.  Aside 
from  these  differences  between  endogens  and 
exogens,  there  is  a  nearly  constant  distinc- 
tion in  the  leaves.  In  the  endogens  the 
veins  in  the  leaf  are  not  usually  distinct, 
but  when  conspicuous  they  are  seen  to  run 
parallel  to  the  midrib,  —  they  are  parallel- 
veined.  The  leaves  are  usually  long  and 
narrow  like  those  of  rushes,  lilies,  and 
grasses,  and  their  margins  are  not  notched. 
There  are  some  exceptions,  the  most  promi- 
nent being  the  leaves  of  smilax,  and  of  the 
trilliums  or  wake-robins.  Most  of  the  leaves 
of  exogens  have  netted  veins,  although  the 
pinks  and  some  others  have  not. 

The  Classification  of  Flowering  Plants. 

There  is  no  science  in  which  the  arrange- 
ment of  objects  into  a  series  of  subordinated 
groups  is  so  thoroughly  and  minutely  worked 
out  as  in  botany.  A  knowledge  of  the 
methods  by  which  botanists  classify  plants 
is  of  vital  importance  to  one  who  under- 


42  TALKS  AFIELD. 

takes  to  know  much  of  botany  ;  and  the 
classification  itself  is  of  interest  to  the  logi- 
cian, as  affording  the  best  illustration  of  in- 
ductive and  dichotomous  arrangement.  The 
system  of  botanical  classification  is  founded 
upon  the  inductive  principle  of  first  learn- 
ing the  characters  of  individual  plants,  and 
then  seizing  upon  the  most  salient  and  per- 
manent features  by  which  many  plants  may 
be  associated  together.  Among  the  appar- 
ent confusion  of  forms  and  of  structures  in 
plants,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  ordinary 
observer  fails  to  recognize  any  general  points 
of  agreement.  There  evidently  must  be 
more  points  of  agreement  than  of  difference 
between  two  or  more  plants  before  we  can 
group  them  together.  They  must  agree 
with  one  another,  but  must  differ  from  other 
groups.  The  two  great  sub-kingdoms  or 
series  of  plants  illustrate  this  proposition : 
the  flowerless  plants  possess  a  common  char- 
acter of  reproducing  themselves  by  spores, 
while  the  flowering  plants  agree  in  repro- 
ducing themselves  by  means  of  seeds;  be- 
tween these  two  sub-kingdoms  there  is  a  great 
external  dissimilarity  in  this  respect.  These 
characters  of  spore  -  bearing  and  of  seed- 
bearing  are  not  readily  recognized  by  those 


EARLY  NOTIONS.  43 

unfamiliar  with  the  study  of  plants,  and  they 
were  not  hit  upon  by  the  early  botanists. 
The  characters  employed  by  the  early  herb- 
alists and  botanists  in  making  their  classifi- 
cations illustrate  the  extent  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  plants  at  the  time,  and  a  compari- 
son of  successive  methods  of  classification 
indicates  the  advancement  in  such  knowl- 
edge. For  instance,  upon  being  told  that 
Dioscorides  in  the  first  century  divided 
plants  into  aromatic,  alimentary,  medicinal, 
and  vinous,  one  is  at  once  impressed  with 
the  thought  that  Dioscorides  studied  plants 
from  a  medicinal  point  of  view,  and  that  he 
understood  their  medicinal  characters  better 
than  any  other  features.  A  very  early  clas- 
sification, and  one  which  denotes  a  superfi- 
cial knowledge  of  plants,  was  that  which  rec- 
ognized the  three  divisions  of  trees,  shrubs, 
and  herbs,  and  this  classification  was  not  en- 
tirely dispelled  until  Linnaeus  rejected  it  in 
the  middle  of  last  century.  It  is  strange 
that  the  forms  of  flowers  did  not  earlier  at- 
tract attention.  Fuchs,  a  studious  German 
whose  botanical  labors  are  appropriately 
commemorated  in  the  name  Fuchsia,  was 
perhaps  the  first  to  define  any  of  the  parts 
of  the  flower.  He  called  the  anthers  the 


44  TALKS   AFIELD. 

apices,  and  the  floral  envelope,  at  least  in 
some  cases,  the  gluma.  Fuchs  published  a 
botanical  work  in  1542.  Hieronymus  Tra- 
gus,  another  German,  published  an  herbal  in 
1551,  in  which  he  associates  some  of  the 
mints,  the  mustards,  and  the  sunflowers.  The 
first  indication  of  a  general  scientific  ar- 
rangement of  plants  occurs  in  the  "  De  Plan- 
tis  Libri  "  of  Andreas  Ca3salpinus,  published 
in  Florence  in  1583.  In  a  vague  manner 
Caesalpinus  pointed  out  ten  classes :  the  first 
included  plants  which  bear  but  one  seed,  as 
the  peach,  almond,  and  cherry ;  the  second, 
such  as  had  but  one  seed  receptacle  or  case, 
as  the  rose  ;  the  third,  those  which  had  two 
seeds  ;  the  fourth,  those  with  two  seed  recep- 
tacles, and  so  on  through  those  with  four 
seed  receptacles;  then  followed  a  class  hav- 
ing more  than  four  seeds  and  one  having 
more  than  four  receptacles.  These  classes 
were  largely  artificial  and  arbitrary,  but  they 
brought  together  plants  which  have  natural 
affinities.  The  plants  included  by  CaBsal- 
pinus  under  Legumina  are  essentially  those 
at  present  included  in  the  order  Leguminosse, 
or  the  Pea  family,  and  his  Bulbaceae  corre- 
spond pretty  closely  to  our  Liliacea?,  or  lily- 
like  plants.  John  Ray,  of  England,  made 


RAY—  LINN^E  US.  45 

important  improvements  in  classification  in 
works  which  he  published  in  1682  and  1686. 
Ray  classified  on  characters  of  the  flowers 
and  fruits.  In  1690  Eivinius  made  a  dispo- 
sition of  plants  founded  upon  the  character 
of  the  corolla  alone.  It  remained  for  Jo- 
seph Pitton  de  Tournefort,  of  Paris,  to  en- 
large this  system  of  classification.  In  1700 
Tournefort  published  eleven  classes  founded 
upon  the  shape  of  the  corolla,  and  for  more 
than  fifty  years  these  classes  were  recognized. 
This  man  was  an  acute  observer  and  an  ac- 
complished botanist.  He  is  commonly  re- 
garded as  the  greatest  botanist  prior  to  Lin- 
naaus.  The  names  of  some  of  his  classes  still 
remain,  as  the  Labiate,  Umbelliferse,  Lilia- 
ceae,  RosaceaB. 

LinnaBus  is  by  common  consent  regarded 
as  the  greatest  of  botanists.  He  was  a 
Swede,  and  lived  from  1707  till  1778.  Lin- 
naeus entered  upon  his  scientific  labors  at  a 
time  when  the  knowledge  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals was  vague  and  superficial,  and  when 
there  were  no  acceptable  methods  of  classi- 
fying and  arranging  either  natural  objects 
or  the  knowledge  of  them.  He  entered  the 
field  as  a  reformer.  In  this  capacity  he  was 
admirable  for  his  skill,  and  still  more  so  for 


46  TALKS  AFIELD. 

the  success  he  won.  He  brought  order  out 
of  confusion.  His  work  extended  to  all 
kinds  of  animals  and  to  minerals.  Through 
his  exertions  a  new  life  was  imparted  to  the 
pursuit  of  scientific  learning.  In  this  con- 
nection we  can  consider  but  two  of  the 
important  reforms  instituted  by  Linnaeus, 
but  these  two  are  among  his  most  conspicu- 
ous labors.  He  made  a  radical  change  in 
the  nomenclature  of  natural  objects,  and  he 
propounded  a  new  and  important  system  of 
classification.  We  will  first  speak  of  the 
reform  in  nomenclature.  Before  Linnaeus 
plants  were  named  in  scientific  works  by  a 
Latin  phrase,  which  was  commonly  used  in 
the  ablative.  Thus  "  Acer  f oliis  paimato-an- 
gulatis,  floribus  subapetalis,  sessilibus,  fructu 
pedunculate  corymboso  "  was  the  name  of 
the  red  maple.  Rendered  into  English  the 
name  reads :  "  Acer  with  palmate,  angular 
leaves,  sessile  and  nearly  apetalous  flowers, 
and  stalked  fruit  in  corymbs."  Acer  is  the 
generic  or  general  name  of  all  the  maples, 
the  same  as  the  word  maple  is  the  generic 
name.  The  different  kinds  or  species  of  ma- 
ples were  distinguished  from  each  other  by 
the  descriptive  phrases.  These  phrases  were 
unwieldy  and  inconvenient,  and  Linnseus 


BINOMIAL  NOMENCLATURE.  47 

saw  what  confusion  and  unpleasantness  must 
come  from  a  multiplication  of  such  names. 
A  very  small  part  of  the  plants  of  the  world, 
or  even  of  Europe,  were  then  described. 
Linnseus  adopted  the  method  of  making  the 
name  of  each  plant  consist  of  two  words, 
one  a  substantive  and  a  generic  name,  the 
other  an  adjective  and  a  specific  name. 
Thus  the  red  maple  became  in  botanical  lan- 
guage Acer  rubrum.  The  adoption  of  this 
binomial  nomenclature,  as  it  is  called,  meant 
more  than  simple  convenience  to  the  bota- 
nist :  it  gave  a  fixedness  to  genera  and  to 
species.  The  genera  of  plants  were  but 
vaguely  defined  before  this  time.  We  might 
illustrate  a  vaguely  defined  genus  by  sup- 
posing that  the  term  maple  might  include 
ashes  or  other  trees  beside  the  true  maples, 
or  that  one  person  might  apply  the  name  to 
one  set  of  plants,  and  another  person  to  a 
different  set.  The  idea  of  genus  is  an  im- 
portant one.  This  idea  is  supposed  to  have 
originated  with  Conrad  Gessner,  an  obscure 
German,  who  died  in  1565  ;  at  least  most 
of  the  merit  of  the  invention  is  to  be  as- 
cribed to  him.  The  strictly  scientific  defini- 
tion and  use  of  the  genus  began  with  Tour- 
nefort,  however.  A  more  particular  mention 


48  TALKS  AFIELD. 

of  the  binomial  nomenclature  will  be  found 
on  page  159. 

The  Linna3an  System  of  Classification, 
although  now  wholly  superseded  by  the  Nat- 
ural System,  was  an  exceedingly  important 
one,  because  it  first  brought  strict  order  into 
the  arrangement  of  plants  and  because  it 
recognized  the  presence  and  importance  of 
the  stamens  and  pistils.  Under  the  discus- 
sion on  the  Sexes  of  Plants,  this  classifica- 
tion will  be  mentioned  again.  The  Linnsean 
system  is  strictly  artificial,  a  fact  which  its 
author  fully  understood,  but  with  the  imper- 
fect knowledge  of  the  science  at  that  time 
he  could  not  aim  at  a  natural  classification. 
Under  his  system  the  knowledge  of  botany 
increased  rapidly,  and  before  he  died  the 
beginnings  of  a  natural  classification  were 

o  o 

made.  The  Linnaean  or  artificial  system 
divided  the  whole  vegetable  kingdom  into 
twenty-four  classes,  founded  entirely  upon 
the  number,  situation,  and  connection  of  the 
stamens.  Using  the  Greek  word  andria, 
man,  for  stamen,  the  names  of  the  first  thir- 
teen classes  are  made  up  as  follows  :  Mo- 
nandria,  flowers  with  one  stamen ;  Dian- 
dria,  flowers  with  two  stamens,  and  so  on  to 
flowers  with  twelve  stamens.  Then  follow 


NATURAL   CLASSIFICATION.  49 

others  founded  upon  the  position  and  other 
characters  of  the  stamens.  These  classes 
are  divided  into  orders  founded  upon  the 
number  of  styles  or  stigmas.  Using  the 
Greek  gynia,  woman,  the  ordinal  names  are 
made  after  the  same  manner:  Monogynia, 
Digynia,  etc.  Linnaeus  observed  the  dis- 
tinction between  flowering  and  flowerless 
plants,  and  originated  the  names  Phenoga- 
mia  (or  Phenerogamia)  and  Cryptogamia. 
His  beautiful  scheme  of  classification  was 
used  until  within  the  last  half  century. 

The  Natural  System  attempts  to  bring  to- 
gether those  plants  which  most  nearly  re- 
semble each  other  in  all  essential  particulars. 
It  does  not  attempt  to  make  a  system ;  it  ac- 
cepts the  system  wrought  out  by  the  Creator, 
and  endeavors  to  follow  it  closely  ;  the  more 
closely  it  follows  nature  the  more  nearly  it 
approaches  perfection.  Although  we  can- 
not hope  to  have  attained  perfection  in  this 
system,  it  is  a  beautiful  and  scientific  struc- 
ture, and  so  far  as  it  rests  upon  natural 
resemblances  and  differences  must  remain 
essentially  undisturbed.  If  the  order  of  re- 
lationship between  plants  lay  in  a  line,  one 
plant  giving  rise  to  another  of  higher  order, 
and  that  one  to  but  one  other  of  still  higher 


50  TALKS  AFIELD. 

order,  and  so  on  to  the  most  highly  developed 
of  plants,  a  natural  system  of  classification 
would  present  no  difficulties.  Such  is  not 
the  case,  however.  Taking  almost  any  plant 
as  a  starting  point,  we  find  not  only  a  line 
ascending  and  another  descending  from  it, 
but  we  find  several  lines  developing  in  dif- 
ferent directions  ;  and  some  of  these  lines 
may  be  suddenly  suppressed,  or  they  may 
become  so  modified  as  to  present  an  equal 
number  of  resemblances  to  each  of  several 
starting  points.  To  properly  associate  plants 
in  a  lineal  classification,  as  we  necessarily 
must  attempt  to  do  in  our  books,  as  if  we 
were  enumerating  a  straightforward  geneal- 
ogy, is  therefore  an  impossibility.  Bernard 
and  Antoine  Jussieu,  uncle  and  nephew, 
residents  of  Paris,  were  the  immediate  found- 
ers of  the  natural  system  in  outline,  al- 
though Linnaeus  and  others  had  indicated 
such  a  system.  It  has  been  much  improved 
by  subsequent  botanists.  A.  P.  De  Can- 
dolle  early  in  this  century  rearranged  the 
natural  families,  or  orders,  into  what  is 
known  as  the  Candollean  sequence.  This 
sequence  supposes  that  the  highest  plants 
are  those  in  which  all  the  parts  of  the  flower 
are  present,  and  in  which  they  all  stand  by 


NATURAL   CLASSIFICATION.  51 

themselves,  the  sepals  not  being  joined  to 
each  other  or  to  the  petals,  the  petals  not 
being  joined  to  each  other  or  to  the  stamens 
or  pistils,  and  so  on.  De  Candolle  assigned 
the  highest  place  to  the  Crowfoot  or  Butter- 
cup family  and  the  lowest  to  the  Grass  fam- 
ily. This  sequence  is  essentially  maintained 
at  present.  Of  course  the  genera  and  the 
species  of  plants  are  the  same  in  any  system 
of  classification.  Classification  is  simply  a 
method  of  arranging  them. 

The  most  general  division  of  the  vegeta- 
ble kingdom  is  into  flowerless  and  flowering 
plants,  —  Cryptogams  and  Phenogams.  We 
will  exclude  the  cryptogams  from  our  con- 
sideration, as  we  have  already  discussed  their 
provisional  arrangement.  Phenogams  may 
be  divided  into  inside-growers  or  one-seed- 
leaved  plants,  —  Endogens  or  Monocotyle- 
dons, —  and  outside-growers  or  two-seed- 
leaved  plants,  —  Exogens  or  Dicotyledons. 
Excluding  the  endogens,  we  find  that  the 
exogens  are  most  readily  subdivided  upon 
characters  of  the  floral  envelopes :  the  indi- 
viduals fall  under  three  divisions,  —  Apet- 
alae,  Gamopetalae,  and  Polypetalae.  These 
terms  find  an  explanation  on  page  35.  Each 
of  these  divisions  contains  its  natural  orders 


52  TALKS  AFIELD. 

or  families,  as  does  also  the  class  of  Endo- 
gens.  The  natural  orders  or  families  are 
large  groups  of  plants  which  have  a  general 
similarity  in  flowers,  fruit,  leaves,  and  gen- 
eral habit.  Being  entirely  natural  they  are 
not  readily  defined,  and  their  limits  are  not 
commonly  clearly  cut.  For  instance,  the 
Pea  or  Pulse  family  includes  some  six  thou- 
sand five  hundred  plants,  which  agree  toler- 
ably well  in  producing  a  certain  kind  of  fruit 
or  pod,  and  most  of  them  bear  the  peculiar 
pea-like  flowers,  although  the  Acacias  do  not. 
We  may  present  a  general  view  of  the  larger 
divisions  of  flowering  plants,  mentioning 
only  the  most  important  natural  families,  as 
follows :  — 

Class  I.     ENDOGENS.     Including 

Graminece,  or  Grass  family. 

Cyperacece,  or  Sedge  family. 

Liliacece,  or  Lily  family. 

Iridacece,  or  Blue  Flag  family. 

Orchidacece,  or  Orchid  family. 

Palmacece,  or  Palm  family. 
Class  II.     EXOGENS. 

Division  I.     APETAL^E,  Including 

Cupuliferce,  or  Oak  and  Beech  family. 

Urticacece,    or   Nettle    and    Mulberry 
family. 


IMPORTANT  NATURAL   ORDERS. 


53 


Division  II.     GAMOPETAL^E,  Including 

/Solanacece,  or  Nightshade  and  Potato 
family. 

Labiatce,  or  Mint  family. 

Scrophulariacece,  or  Figwort  and  Snap- 
dragon family. 

Ericaceae,  or  Heath  and  Whortleberry 
family. 

Compositce,  the  great  composite-flow- 
ered family,  including  sunflowers, 
daisies,  etc.  (See  p.  60.) 

Rubiacece,  or  Madder  family. 

Caprifoliacece,  or  Honeysuckle  family. 
Division  III.  POLYFETAL^E,  Including 

Umbelliferce,  or  Parsnip  and  Carrot 
family. 

Cucurbitacece,  or  Pumpkin  and  Melon 
family. 

Saxifragacece,  or  Saxifrage  and  Cur- 
rant family. 

Rosacece,  or  Rose  family.     (See  p.  54.) 

Leguminosce,  or  Pea  family. 

Caryophyllacece,  or  Pink  family. 

Cruciferce,  or  Mustard  and  Cabbage 
family. 

Ranunculacece,  or  Buttercup  family. 

The  Coniferce,  or  Pine  and  Spruce  family, 
belongs  to  the  Exogens,  but  on  account  of 
certain  peculiarities  it  is  not  included  in 


54  TALKS  AFIELD. 

either  of  the  three  divisions.  Under  each 
family  are  arranged  the  genera,  and  under 
each  genus  the  species.  To  illustrate  more 
particularly  the  methods  of  classification 
within  the  order,  synopses  of  the  Rose  and 
Composite  families  are  given  farther  on. 
The  number  of  orders  or  families  of  flower- 
ing plants  admitted  by  latest  authorities  is 
200,  including  7,585  genera,  and  nearly 
100,000  species ! 

The  Hose  Family. 

The  limits  of  the  natural  orders  of  plants 
were  made  by  the  Creator ;  they  are  natural 
boundaries.  The  botanist  associates  those 
plants  which  resemble  each  other  in  the  es- 
sential structure  of  flower  and  fruit,  and 
names  the  group  thus  formed  after  some  one 
of  its  prominent  members,  or  after  some 
striking  peculiarity  of  the  group.  Thus 
botanists  find  about  a  thousand  species  of 
plants  which  resemble  the  rose,  and  they  are 
collectively  designated  the  Rosacese  or  Rose 
family.  When  these  thousand  plants  are 
studied  and  compared  a  family  definition  is 
made.  It  is  often  a  difficult  task  to  make 
a  definition  which  will  include  so  many 
plants  and  exclude  those  of  other  families. 


ROSACES. 


55 


It  is  especially  difficult  in  the  Rose  family, 
which  includes  plants  of  very  variable  struc- 
tures. Some  orders  or  families  are  more 
natural  than  others ;  they  include  plants 
which  agree  in  possessing  some  one  or  more 
peculiar  distinguishing  characters.  Exam- 
ples of  such  families  are  the  Cruciferse  or 
Mustard  family,  UmbelliferaB  or  Parsnip 
family,  and  Composite  or  Sunflower  family. 
The  Rose  family  is  not  so  well  defined  as 
many  other  families.  As  now  understood  it 
includes  two  or 
three  families 
recognized  by 
the  older  bota- 
nists. We  shall 
find  it  profita- 
able  to  examine 

.  Fig.  45. 

a  few  rosaceous 

flowers  before  considering  the  general  defini- 
tion of  the  order.  Fig.  45  represents  a  cherry 
flower  cut  in  two  lengthwise.  At  p  is  seen 
the  pistil,  the  lower  part  of  which  (the 
ovary)  ripens  into  the  cherry.  At  c  c  is 
shown  the  calyx,  upon  the  top  of  which  are 
borne  the  stamens  and  the  petals.  The  end 
of  the  flower-stalk  where  it  joins  the  flower, 
r,  is  called  the  receptacle.  Fig.  46  represents 


56 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


an  apple-flower.  Here  the  stamens  and  pet- 
als are  borne  on  the  calyx  as  before,  but  the 
ovary  or  young  apple  does  not  appear  to  be 

distinct  from 
the  calyx. 
The  dotted 
lines  at  c  c 
show  the  posi- 
tion of  the  ca- 
lyx, however, 
and  that  it  is 
Fig-  46.  united  with 

the  ovary.  As  the  fruit  ripens  this  adnate 
calyx  thickens  and  becomes  fleshy,  and  forms 
the  edible  portion  of  the  apple.  The  core 
of  the  apple  is 
the  fruit,  while 
the  surrounding- 
portion  is  thick- 
ened calyx!  The 
upper  extremities 
of  this  calyx  are 
seen  in  the  five 
appendages  in  the 
"blossom  end"  of  an  apple.  Fruits  made 
up  in  this  peculiar  manner,  as  apples,  pears, 
quinces,  and  medlars,  are  designated  pomes. 
We  also  notice  that  in  this  flower  there  are 


Fig.  47. 


STRA  WBERR  Y  —  BLA  CKBERR  Y. 


57 


three  styles  represented,  while  in  the  cherry- 
flower  there  is  only  one.  The  receptacle  at 
r  is  like  that  in  Fig.  45.  In  Fig.  47  is 
shown  a  section  of  the  strawberry  flower. 
Here  again  the  stamens  and  petals  are  at- 
tached to  the  short  calyx,  but  the  centre  of 
the  flower  presents  a  peculiar  appearance. 
The  central  body  is  the  receptacle  much  en- 
larged, and  over  its  surface  are  scattered  nu- 
merous little  pistils,  which  ripen  into  the 
fruits  or  "  seeds "  of  the  strawberry.  The 
elongated  receptacle  becomes  red  and  fleshy, 
and  is  called  a  strawberry,  while  in  fact  it 
is  not  a  berry,  not  even  a  fruit,  but  the 
fleshy  end  of  a  flower  stalk !  If  we  were  to 
examine  a  blackberry  we  should  find  its  cen- 
tre to  be  filled  with  the  white  and  elongated 
receptacle,  over  the  surface  of  which  are 
packed  the  little  fruits.  These  little  fruits 
are  like  those  on  the  strawberry,  only  that 
they  are  fleshy.  The  blackberry  is  therefore 
a  collection  of  many  little  fruits.  The  rasp- 
berry resembles  the  blackberry,  but  the  re- 
ceptacle does  not  separate  from  the  bush 
with  the  fruits.  We  will  next  examine  the 
rose  itself,  a  halved  specimen  of  which,  with 
the  petals  removed,  is  shown  in  Fig.  48. 
The  stamens  and  petals  are  borne  on  the 


58  TALKS  AFIELD. 

calyx  as  before,  but  the  fruiting  portion  pre- 
sents a  new  anomaly. 
Several  little  pistils  or 
fruits  are  borne  inside 
a  cavity.  The  walls  of 
this  cavity  are  made  up 
of  the  adnate  calyx  on 
the  outer  side  and  of 
the  concave  receptacle 

on  the  inside.  When  the  fruits  are  ripe  this 
fleshy  urn  closes  up  more  or  less  completely, 
and  forms  altogether  the  "  rose  hip  "  or,  as 
it  is  often  erroneously  called,  the  "  berry." 

Among  all  these  complexities  of  structure 
in  the  rosaceous  flowers  are  there  any  con- 
stant characters  ?  We  have  noticed  one  de- 
cisive peculiarity :  the  petals  and  stamens 
are  borne  on  the  calyx.  We  may  have  no- 
ticed other  peculiarities.  For  instance,  the 
flowers  are  regular,  all  the  stamens,  all  the 
petals,  and  all  the  pistils  being  alike  ;  the 
stamens  are  not  united  with  each  other ; 
the  petals  are  not  united  with  each  other  ; 
the  sepals  are  united  below  into  a  tube ; 
the  pistils  are  borne  inside  the  calyx,  not  be- 
low it  as  in  some  plants,  i.  e.,  the  pistils  are 
superior.  Now,  all  these  plants  are  Exogens, 
and  they  belong  to  the  division  Polypetalse ; 


ROSE  SUB-FAMILIES. 


59 


and  we  may  further  define  them  by  saying 
that  they  have  regular  flowers,  with  the  dis- 
tinct stamens  and  petals  borne  on  the  calyx 
tube  and  the  pistil  or  pistils  superior.  The 
greatest  differences  in  the  structure  of  the 
flowers  we  have  seen  to  lie  in  the  adhesion 
of  calyx  tube  and  pistils,  or  calyx  tube  and 
receptacle,  and  in  the  odd  forms  of  the  re- 
ceptacle rather  than  in  the  pistils  or  fruits 
themselves. 

We  may  divide  the  Rose  family  into  three 
sub-orders  or  sub-families :  — 

Almond  Sub  -  Family.  —  Comprising 
plants  whose  flowers  bear  mostly  one  pistil, 
to  which  the  calyx  tube  is  not  united,  a  nor- 
mal receptacle,  and  which  produce  stone- 
fruits  or  drupes.  Here  are  included  almonds, 
peaches,  apricots,  nectarines,  cherries,  and 
plums. 

Hose  Sub-Family.  —  Pistils  usually  many, 
distinct,  not  becoming  large  in  fruit,  and  not 
united  with  the  calyx  tube,  the  receptacle 
often  peculiarly  developed.  In  this  sub- 
family may  be  included  the  roses,  strawber- 
ries, blackberries,  raspberries,  and  spiraeas. 

Pear  Sub- Family.  —  Pistils  united  with 
each  other  and  with  the  calyx  tube,  which  be- 
comes thick  and  fleshy  at  maturity.  Here 


60  TALKS   AFIELD. 

are  included  the  pomaceous  (pome-bearing) 
plants,  apples,  pears,  quinces,  medlars,  ser- 
vice-berries, mountain-ash,  and  hawthorns. 

Under  each  of  these  sub-families  are  in- 
cluded the  genera,  of  which  the  whole  Rose 
family  contains  about  seventy.  The  repre- 
sentative genus  of  the  Pear  sub-family  is  Py- 
rus.  Pyrus  malus  is  the  common  apple,  Pyrus 
prunifolia  the  crab-apple,  Pyrus  communis 
the  pear,  and  Pyrus  Cydonia  the  quince. 
There  are  five  native  species  of  Pyrus  in  the 
northeastern  United  States.  One  of  the 
most  familiar  is  Pyrus  Americana,  the  moun- 
tain-ash. The  wild  crab-apple,  common  in 
glades  from  western  New  York  to  Wisconsin 
and  southward,  is  P.  coronaria,  and  the  dog- 
berry  or  choke-berry  of  swamps,  a  bush  and 
fruit  resembling  the  whortleberry,  is  P.  ar- 
butifolia,  "  arbutus-leaved  Pyrus." 

The  Composite  Family. 

The  largest  and  the  most  readily  recog- 
nized of  all  orders  is  the  Composite.  This 
great  family  includes  about  10,000  species, 
fully  one  ninth  of  all  flowering  plants. 
These  species  belong  to  nearly  800  genera. 
One  thousand  six  hundred  and  ten  species 
occur  in  North  America  north  of  Mexico, 


COMPOSITE. 


61 


but  59  of  these  have  been  introduced  from 
other  countries;  237  genera  are  represented. 
The  largest  genus  of  this  family  is  Seneeio, 
which  contains  nearly  900  species,  only  57 
of  which  occur  in  this  country.  The  largest 
genus  in  America  is  Aster,  which  comprises 
124  species,  and  the  next  is  Soli  dago,  golden- 
rods,  comprising  78  species. 

The  members  of  the  Compositae  have  three 
easily  recognizable  peculiarities :  the  indi- 
vidual flowers  or  florets  are  small  and  they 
are  compacted  into  a  conspicuous  head,  which 
is  commonly  mistaken  for  one  flower  ;  the 
calyx  is  represented  by  soft  hairs  or  little 
teeth  borne  at  the  apex  of  the  little  fruit ; 
the  anthers  are  united  in  a  ring  about  the 
style.  The  outer  flowers  in  the  head  are 
often  furnished 
with  a  long  ray 
or  notched  petal 
on  one  side,  and 
these  rays  ap- 
pear like  tho 
petals  of  one 
simple  flower. 
Fig.  49  repre- 
sents the  blue 


Fig.  49. 


flower  of  an  aster  with  the  conspicuous  rays 


62 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


of  the  outer  flowers  and  the  less  showy  in- 
terior or  disk 
flowers.  If  we 
were  to  cut  in 
two  a  garden 
coreopsis,  as  in 
Fig.  50,  we 
could  readily 
discern  that 
the  yellow  rays 
are  not  a  part  of  the  disk  flowers.  If  from 
this  coreopsis  we  were  to  remove  all  the 
flowers  but  two,  as  in  Fig.  51,  we  should  see 
that  the  ray  flowers  bear  little  resemblance 
to  the  disk  flowers.  The  erect  disk  flower 
in  the  centre  has  minute  teeth  near  its  base 
in  the  place  of  a  calyx,  and  the  petals  are 
united  into  a  five-parted  tube.  The  flower  is 
therefore  one 
of  the  Gamo- 
petalse.  The 
ray  flowers 
have  the  mi- 
nute calyx 
teeth,  scarcely 


Fig.  51. 


shown  in  the  figure,  but  there  is  apparently 
only  one  petal,  which  is  rolled  into  a  tube 
below.  The  end  of  this  petal  is  furnished 


COMPOSITE.  63 

with  five  notches ;  why  do  they  not  represent 
the  five  united  petals  ?  We  notice  these 
notches  in  the  chicory  and  in  most  other  ray 
flowers  of  this  family.  The  ray 
flowers  in  the  coreopsis  have  no 
stamens  or  pistils  :  they  are  neutral 
flowers.  The  disk  flower  has  two 
deflexed  stigmas,  below  which  is  the 
ring  of  five  united  anthers.  The 
anthers  and  stigmas  are  enlarged  in  Fig.  52. 
Each  of  the  disk  flowers  is  subtended  by  a 
bract  or  bristle,  one  of-  which  is  shown  in 
Fig.  51.  In  all  the  composite  flowers  the 
receptacle  is  greatly  developed,  usually  pre- 
senting a  nearly  flat,  expanded  surface.  In 
the  cultivated  sunflowers  this 
receptacle,  with  its  covering  of 
florets,  is  often  over  a  foot 
across.  Fig.  53  represents  a 
floret  of  the  pestiferous  Canada 
thistle.  At  its  lower  extremity 
is  the  ovary,  which  ripens  into  Fig-  53. 
the  one-seeded  fruit.  On  its  apex  is  borne 
the  downy  pappus,  which  answers  to  the 
calyx,  and  the  five-parted  corolla  is  seen 
above.  Here,  then,  the  ovary  is  inferior ; 
in  the  rosaceous  flowers  we  found  it  to  be 
superior  to  the  calyx.  The  pappus  may  con- 


64 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


sist  of  many  soft  hairs,  as  in  the  thistle,  or 
of  barbed  teeth,  as  in  the  beggar's 
ticks  (Fig.  54),  or  of  minute  teeth, 
as  in  the  coreopsis.  In  most  cases 
it  is  a  means  of  distributing 
the  seed,  either  by  floating  it 
in  the  air  or  by  attaching  it 
to  clothing  or  the  coats  of 
g-  54-  animals.  In  the  dandelion 
it  is  raised  on  a  slender  stalk.  (Fig. 
55.)  The  whole  head  in  the  com-  Fis-  55- 
posite  flowers  is  more  or  less  surrounded  by 
little  green  leaves,  like  a 
calyx.  These  leaves  consti- 
tute the  involucre.  The  in- 
volucre is  shown  at  i  in  Fig. 
56,  and  again  in  Fig.  57, 
where  it  is  compact  and 
covered  with 

hooked  bristles,  making  the 
well-known  bur  of  the  burdock. 
We  are  now  familiar  with 
the  essential  structure  of  the 
flowers  of  the  Composite  fam- 
ily, —  the  aggregation  into 
heads,  the  pappus,  the  united 
anthers,  the  gamopetalous  co-  Fig.  57- 
rolla,  the  enlarged  receptacle,  the  involucre, 


Flg-  56- 
tube  -like    and 


COMPOSITE.  65 

the  rays,  and  the  chaff  or  bristles  on  the 
receptacle.  The  rays  are  often  entirely  ab- 
sent, as  in  the  boneset  and  thistles,  and 
sometimes  all  the  flowers  have  rays,  as  in 
the  chicory  and  dandelion.  Sometimes  there 
is  no  indication  of  pappus,  and  the  chaff  is 
often  wanting  also.  The  beauty  of  the  heads 
of  composite  flowers  is  due  almost  entirely  to 
the  conspicuous  rays.  These  rays  sometimes 
contain  both  stamens  and  pistils,  sometimes 
only  pistils,  and  sometimes  neither. 

Although  the  Composite  includes  such  a 
vast  array  of  plants,  inhabiting  every  cli- 
mate, there  are  very  few  of  them  which 
furnish  edible  or  useful  products.  The  im- 
portant edible  species  are  lettuce,  endive, 
chicory,  and  salsify  or  vegetable  oyster,  and 
its  ally,  scorzonera.  Most  of  the  species  are 
herbs,  a  very  few  attaining  the  character  of 
low  shrubs.  If  the  order  lacks  in  edible  or 
other  useful  species,  it  superabounds  in  or- 
namental ones.  The  daisies  are  all  members 
of  the  Composite  family.  Botanically,  the 
daisy  is  a  little  European  perennial,  less 
than  six  inches  high,  which,  in  its  double 
form,  is  cultivated  in  our  gardens.  Popu- 
larly, the  name  is  applied  to  all  the  white 
or  azure-rayed  Compositae  which  so  profusely 

5 


66  TALKS  AFIELD. 

decorate  our  glades  and  meadows.  The 
wild  asters,  plants  peculiarly  American,  are 
the  popular  daisies  west  of  New  England, 
where  the  intruding  white-weed  or  ox-eye 
daisy  has  not  yet  overrun  the  meadows. 
The  American  autumn  blossoms  with  asters 
and  golden-rods,  the  twin  emblems  of  the 
season's  maturity  and  harvest.  Poets  have 
always  loved  the  daisies  :  — 

"  The  daisy  scattered  on  each  mead  and  downe, 
A  golden  tuft  within  a  silver  crown ; 
Faire  fell  that  dainty  flower !  and  may  there  be 
No  shepherd  graced  that  doth  not  honor  thee !  " 

Shakespeare  wrote  of  "  daisies  pied  and  vio- 
lets blue."  The  etymology  of  the  word  sug- 
gests a  poem  :  it  is  derived  from  the  old 
Saxon  days  eye.  The  sunflowers  are  the 
most  conspicuous  members  of  the  family. 
Nearly  all  the  species  are  North  American. 
Forty  species  are  described  from  this  conti- 
nent, north  of  Mexico,  and  of  these  twenty 
occur  in  the  Northern  States  east  of  the 
Mississippi.  They  are  miniatures  in  size  of 
heads  as  compared  with  the  great  sunflowers 
of  the  garden.  All  the  species  are  yellow- 
rayed,  with  the  exception  of  one  or  two 
which  are  entirely  rayless.  The  common 
garden  sunflower  was  introduced  long  ago 


SUNFLOWERS.  67 

into  Europe,  and  its  nativity  has  been  until 
lately  a  matter  of  doubt.  It  is  now  found 
that  a  wild  species  of  the  plains  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  a  plant  which  bears  heads  but 
an  inch  or  two  in  diameter,  exclusive  of  the 
rays,  is  the  parent  of  our  cultivated  plant. 
The  Indians  of  the  East  early  obtained  it 
from  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and  they  were 
cultivating  it  about  the  eastern  shores  of 
Lake  Huron  when  Champlain  and  Segard 
visited  them  nearly  three  centuries  ago.  The 
Indians  used  the  seeds  for  making  hair-oil 
and  for  eating.  Under  their  cultivation  the 
flower-heads  began  to  assume  their  abnormal 
size.  One  of  the  sunflowers  is  the  artichoke 
of  our  gardens,  which  yields  edible  subter- 
ranean tubers.  This  plant  is  also  a  native 
of  our  Western  plains,  and  it  has  a  history 
not  unlike  that  of  the  sunflower.  It  was  in- 
troduced into  Europe  as  early  as  1617,  and 
the  Italians  began  its  cultivation  under  the 
name  of  Girasole  Articocco,  Sunflower  arti- 
choke. The  name  Girasole  became  cor- 
rupted into  Jerusalem,  and  the  plant  is  now 
commonly  known  in  England  as  Jerusalem 
artichoke.  It  has  commonly  been  supposed 
that  the  plant  is  a  native  of  Brazil,  but  late 
evidence  affords  proof  that  our  Indians  cul- 


68  TALKS  AFIELD. 

tivated  it,  and  that  from  them  it  was  ob- 
tained by  early  adventurers.  In  1629  the 
tubers  had  become  very  abundant  and  cheap 
in  London,  according  to  Parkinson,  a  bota- 
nist of  that  time.  As  the  culture  of  the  po- 
tato spread,  that  of  the  artichoke  decreased. 
The  true  artichoke  is  a  very  different  plant 
from  this  tuber-bearing  sunflower,  although 
it  is  a  composite.  It  is  a  native  of  South- 
ern Europe  and  Barbary.  To  botanists  it  is 
known  as  Cynara  Scolymus.  The  part  eaten 
is  the  large  unopened  flower  head.  The 
Cardoon,  which  is  occasionally  grown  in  this 
country  for  the  bleached  inner  leaf-stalks,  is 
also  a  Cynara. 


Having  now  obtained  an  idea  of  some  of 
the  principles  of  classification,  we  are  pre- 
pared to  consider  a  few  of  the  striking  pe- 
culiarities of  common  plants.  With  very 
few  exceptions  the  essays  which  follow  can 
be  verified  by  the  unprofessional  observer. 
They  relate  mostly  to  the  visible  parts  and 
operations  of  plants.  The  essays  are  selected 
at  random  from  the  book  of  Nature,  from 
which  every  one  is  invited  to  read.  They 
may  aid  as  interpreters  to  some  of  the  per- 


HIDDEN   IVONDERS.  69 

plexing  passages  to  be  found  there.  With 
the  exception  of  the  first  essay,  they  do  not 
deal  with  nutrition  or  microscopic  structure, 
and  in  lieu  of  a  better  opportunity  we  may 
now  say  a  word  in  regard  to  this  microscopic 
feature  of  botany.  In  the  hands  of  the  bot- 
anist the  compound  microscope  reveals  a 
wonderland  in  the  interior  of  every  plant. 
It  uncovers  the  framework  of  every  organ, 
and  reveals  a  complicated  structure  of  cells, 
vessels,  and  fibres.  It  opens  the  tiny  cells 
themselves  and  discloses  in  each  a  chemical 
laboratory,  replete  with  implements  and  ma- 
terials for  the  manfacture  of  starch,  sugars, 
acids,  and  leaf-green,  and  numerous  other 
needs  of  the  growing  plant  for  the  making 
of  cells  and  the  ripening  of  fruits.  It  ex- 
hibits beautiful  forms  of  various  substances, 
sharply  angled  crystals,  and  materials  in  mo- 
tion. It  explains  many  of  the  mysteries  of 
the  multiform  protoplasm  which  is  necessary 
to  the  life  of  each  individual  cell.  The  mi- 
croscope gives  us  a  clew  to  the  relations  of 
plants  to  their  surroundings  and  to  the  ani- 
mal world.  All  this  minute  study,  though 
laden  with  deepest  interest  and  full  of  mean- 
ing, is  recondite  and  entirely  foreign  to  the 
purpose  of  this  little  volume. 


70 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


A  Peep  at  the  Inside. 
The  ordinary  visible  plants  are  made  up 
of  great  numbers  of  microscopic  cells  of  an 
infinite  variety  of  size  and  shape.  When 
these  cells  begin  to  grow  they  are  usually 
spherical,  but  they  soon  become  curiously 
compressed  or  contorted  by  the  pressure  of 
one  upon  another.  In  portions  of  the  plant 
where  the  pressure  is  the  same  upon  all  sides, 
the  cells  become  symmetrically  twelve-sided, 
as  in  the  magnified  portion  of  pith  in  Fig.  58. 
It  is  not  often,  how- 
ever, that  such  cells 
occur.  Some  cells 
become  much  elon- 
gated ;  *a  n  d  when 
they  have  woody 
walls,  they  are 
known  as  the  wood 
Fis-58-  cells.  (Fig.  59.) 
Other  elongated  cells  are  those 
which  are  commonly  known  as  ves- 
sels. They  are  tubes  which  run  through  the 
stems  of  plants,  often  having  upon  their 
walls  peculiar  markings,  as  dots,  disks,  spi- 
rals, and  rings.  Portions  of  vessels  with 
these  annular  and  spiral  markings  are  shown 


A  PEEP  AT  THE  INSIDE. 


71 


in  Fig.  60.     Odd  forms  of  cells  are  shown 
in  the  hairs  upon  the  leaves  and  stems  of 


Fig.  60. 

plants.  Hairs  of  the  pumpkin  vine,  each 
hair  composed  of  several  cells,  are  shown  in 
Fig.  61,  and  one-celled 
hairs  of  another  plant 
are  shown  in  Fig.  62. 
The  external  cells  of 
plants  are  usually  flat- 
tened and  often  bor- 
d  e  r  e  d  by  irregular 
margins.  These  flat- 


Fig.  61.  Fig  62. 

tened  or  tabular  cells  make  the  epidermis. 
The  outlines  of  the  thin  epidermal  cells  of 
the  leaf  of  the  snap-dragon  are  figured  in 


72  TALKS  AFIELD. 

Fig.  63.     If  we  were  to  make  a  cross-section 
of  a  leaf,  cutting  across  the  leaf  from  the 


Fig.  63.  Fig.  64. 

upper  surface  to  the  lower,  and  were  to  ex- 
amine the  section  with  a  microscope,  an 
arrangement  something  like  that  in  Fig.  64 
would  be  presented.  On  the  upper  surface 
are  to  be  seen  the  flattened  epidermal  cells, 
while  immediately  beneath  them  are  two 
rows  of  long  palisade  cells.  The  under  sur- 
face is  also  faced  with  the  flattened  cells. 
The  lower  half  of  the 
interior  of  the  leaf  is 
made  up  of  a  loose  ag- 
gregation of  irregular 
cells,  between  which 
are  air  spaces.  If, 

Fig.  65.  . , 

now,    we    magnify    a 

portion  of  the  under  surface  of  the  leaf  we 
discover  many  crescent-shaped  cells  lying 
face  to  face,  with  an  opening  between  them. 


A  PEEP  AT  THE  INSIDE.  73 

(Fig.  65.)  These  openings  are  the  breath- 
ing pores  or  stomata,  and  they  are  situ- 
ated directly  over  air  spaces.  The  crescent- 
shaped  cells  are  called  the  guard  cells  of  the 
stomata,  and  they  have  the  power  of  regu- 
lating the  size  of  the  opening  into  the  leaf, 
often  completely  closing  it.  The  grains  in 
the  cells  of  Fig.  64  represent  the  pigment 
which  gives  the  green  color  to  the  leaf ;  these 
are  the  chlorophyll  grains,  "  leaf -green " 
grains.  Although  they  usually  occupy  but 
a  portion  of  the  cell,  they  are  still  so  close 
together  as  not  to  be  recognized  by  the  eye, 
and  they  therefore  present  a  continuous  ap- 
pearance of  green.  The  epidermis,  both 
above  and  below,  is  mostly  destitute  of  chlo- 
rophyll, and  transparent.  The  cell  contents 
are  as  variable  as  the  cells  themselves.  All 
growing  parts  contain  a  whitish  granular 
liquid  known  as  protoplasm.  This  proto- 
plasm is  the  life-giving  element  of  plants, 
from  which  are  formed  new  cells,  and  starch 
and  other  products  which  the  plant  stores 
up  for  future  use.  All  seeds  and  tubers  and 
bulbs  store  away  starch  to  feed  the  plantlet 
while  it  is  germinating  and  establishing  it- 
self in  the  soil. 

We  have  before  remarked  that  all  plants 


74  TALKS  AFIELD. 

which  possess  leaf-green  also  possess  the 
power  of  assimilating ;  that  is,  they  can 
make  starch  and  similar  compounds  out  of 
inorganic  matters,  such  as  water  and  carbon 
dioxide.  Animals  cannot  assimilate  ;  they 
eat  organic  products  which  have  been  pre- 
pared by  plants  and  digest  them  into  other 
organic  products.  Neither  can  all  plants 
assimilate,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of 
fungi.  Plants  also  have  a  power  akin  to 
digestion,  for  they  make  over  the  starch-like 
materials,  which  are  formed  by  assimilation, 
into  other  organic  compounds.  This  change 
is  called  metastasis.  The  plant  through  its 
roots  takes  in  various  compounds  which  are 
dissolved  in  water.  These  compounds  con- 
tain carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen,  nitrogen,  sul- 
phur, iron,  potassium,  and  other  materials. 
The  plant  takes  these  solutions  in  through 
its  roots  by  a  modification  of  the  phenom- 
enon known  to  physicists  as  osmose,  a  sort 
of  soaking-in  process.  The  pressure  exerted 
by  the  liquid  as  it  comes  into  the  root 
through  this  osmotic  action  forces  the  "sap" 
upwards,  but  the  chief  cause  of  its  rise  is  to 
be  found  in  another  fact :  the  stomata  on 
the  under  surface  of  the  leaves  are  open  if 
the  weather  is  clear  and  moist,  and  water  is 


ASCENSION  OF  SAP.  75 

constantly  evaporating  from  them.  As  fast 
as  this  evaporation  takes  place  more  water  is 
needed.  A  demand  is  made  upon  the  cells 
in  the  interior  of  the  leaf  which  contain 
more  water  than  those  near  the  stomata,  and 
as  these  interior  cells  lose  some  of  their  wa- 
ter they  in  turn  call  upon  cells  still  more 
distant,  and  so  on  until  the  call  is  made  all 
through  the  stem  and  to  the  minute  root 
hairs  which  derive  their  water  from  the 
earth.  This  water  does  not  flow  upwards  in 
tubes  or  cells,  but  it  is  soaked  up  through 
the  thick  walls  of  the  wood  cells,  and  it 
keeps  soaking  upwards  as  fast  as  evapora- 
tion pumps  it  out  through  the  leaves.  In 
this  manner  the  water  from  the  earth,  laden 
with  its  food  materials,  finally  reaches  the 
leaves  ;  and  there,  in  conjunction  with  car- 
bonic acid  gas  from  the  air,  in  the  chloro- 
phyll grains  in  the  minute  cell  laboratories, 
and  with  the  aid  of  sunlight,  occurs  the 
wonderful  transformation  into  organic  mate- 
rials. These  materials  afterwards  pass  into 
the  protoplasm  and  are  used  in  building  new 
cells.  During  the  process  of  assimilation 
oxygen  gas  is  set  free  and  given  off  through 
the  stomata.  This  oxygen  is  necessary  to 
the  life  of  animals,  while  the  carbonic  acid 


76  TALKS  AFIELD. 

gas  which  is  exhaled  by  animals  is  necessary 
to  the  life  of  plants.  Assimilation  can  take 
place  only  in  the  sunlight,  but  growth  —  the 
formation  of  new  cells  —  takes  place  more 
rapidly  at  night.  During  this  growth  and 
the  metastasis  which  is  necessary  to  it,  — 
the  changing  of  one  organic  compound  into 
another,  —  the  plant  is  breathing ;  air  is 
taken  in  through  the  stomata,  or  the  air  of 
the  air-spaces  is  used  if  the  stomata  are 
closed.  This  breathing  is  strictly  compara- 
ble to  that  of  animals,  as  the  oxygen  is  used 
and  carbonic  acid  gas  is  given  off.  The  sto- 
mata act  as  valves ;  they  regulate  largely 
the  amount  of  water  given  off  and  the 
amount  of  air  taken  in.  They  are  open  in 
sunlight,  but  are  nearly  closed  in  darkness. 
During  a  severe  drouth,  when  the  roots  can- 
not find  sufficient  water,  they  close  and  allow 
no  evaporation  to  take  place.  When  the 
atmosphere  is  moist  they  are  wide  open.  If 
the  leaves  are  the  lungs  of  the  plant  be- 
cause they  breathe,  they  are  more  emphat- 
ically the  stomachs  of  the  plant  because  they 
assimilate  and  digest. 


SEX.  77 

The  Sexes  of  Plants. 
The  stamens,  as  we  have  seen,  bear  pow- 
dery grains  of  pollen  in  their  anthers.  This 
pollen  is  the  male  element  of  the  plant,  and 
it  must  be  carried  to  the  pistil  before  that 
organ  can  produce  seeds.  The  stamens  are, 
therefore,  the  male  or  sterile  organs  of  the 
plant,  and  the  pistils  are  the  female  or  fer- 
tile organs.  The  universal  doctrine  of  the 
sexes  of  plants  was  first  clearly  enunciated 
by  Linnaeus  in  1735,  and  his  elegant  system 
of  classification  was  built  upon  the  numbers 
and  characters  of  the  essential  or  reproduc- 
tive organs.  While  this  system  was  so  ex- 
pedient in  the  arranging  and  studying  of 
plants,  it  was  also  important  because  it  rec- 
ognized the  functions  of  the  stamens  and 
pistils  and  brought  them  prominently  into 
the  consideration  of  botanists.  The  idea  of 
sex  in  plants  did  not  originate  with  Linnaeus, 
however.  As  early  as  the  days  of  Herodo- 
tus, two  sorts  of  date-palms  were  distin- 
guished, one  sterile  and  the  other  fertile,  and 
it  was  known  that  the  fruitfulness  of  the  fer- 
tile plant  was  increased  by  shaking  trusses 
of  the  sterile  plant  over  it.  Caesalpinus  ob- 
served that  some  hemp  plants  were  sterile 


78  TALKS  AFIELD. 

and  others  fertile.  Sex  was  probably  first 
clearly  perceived  by  Zaluzianski,  a  native  of 
Poland,  who  wrote  early  in  1600.  Nehemiah 
Grew,  of  England,  in  1682,  was  more  pre- 
cise in  his  definitions  and  remarks  concerning 
the  stamens  and  pistils.  In  1694,  Jacques 
Camerarius,  a  German,  gave  the  first  deci- 
sive proof  that  sexes  occur  in  plants  just  as 
truly  as  in  animals,  and  his  letter  upon  the 
subject,  "  De  Sexu  Plantarum,"  has  become 
celebrated.  The  statements  made  by  Came- 
rarius obtained  currency  among  naturalists, 
and  they  were  generally  accepted.  Tourne- 
fort,  however,  was  incredulous,  but  one  of 
his  pupils,  Sebastian  Vaillant,  publicly  pro- 
fessed his  belief  in  the  sexes  of  plants.  It 
is  said  that  Linna3us  first  obtained  his  idea 
of  sex  from  reading  Vaillant' s  dissertation, 
which  he  had  found  by  accident.  Linna3us' 
own  observations  soon  confirmed  the  imper- 
fect statements  of  his  instructor,  and  it  was 
not  long  before  he  startled  the  world  with 
the  doctrine  of  universal  sexuality  in  flower- 
ing plants,  and  built  thereon  his  system  of 
classification. 

For  nearly  a  hundred  years  it  was  sup- 
posed that  the  pollen  grains,  after  they  had 
fallen  upon  the  stigma,  burst  open  and  dis- 


GROWTH  OF  THE  POLLEN. 


79 


charged  their  contents,  which  in  some  man- 
ner fertilized  the  ovules  or  young  seeds.  In 
1823  an  Italian,  Ainici,  perceived  that  the 
grains  of  pollen  upon  the  stigma  of  an  Afri- 
can plant  changed  into  tubes,  which  he  des- 
ignated the  pollen  tubes.  Four  years  later, 
the  celebrated  Brongniart  confirmed  the  ob- 


Fig.  66. 

servation  of  Amici,  and  found  that  the  tubes 
were  produced  in  many  plants,  and  further- 
more that  they  penetrated  the  soft  tissue  of 
the  stigma.  It  is  now  known  that  the  pollen 
grain  germinates  after  it  falls  upon  the 
stigma,  and  sends  a  minute  tube  down 
through  the  stigma  and  style,  finally  penetra- 
ting the  ovule  or  seed-forming  body.  One 


80  TALKS  AFIELD. 

of  these  tubes  must  reach  each  ovule  before 
the  ovule  can  develop  into  a  seed.  In  just 
what  manner  the  pollen  tube  acts  upon  the 
embryo-sac  of  the  ovule  is  not  known.  We 
can  make  an  ideal  picture  of  these  pollen 
tubes  as  represented  in  Fig.  66,  the  figure 
at  the  right  representing  a  longitudinal  sec- 
tion of  a  portion  of  the  stigma.  M.  Brong- 
niart  compared  the  appearance  of  a  stigma 
penetrated  by  pollen  tubes  to  "a  pin-cushion 
entirely  filled  with  pins  stuck  into  it  up  to 
the  head." 

If  we  refer  to  our  talk  about  the  flower  on 
page  29  et  seq.,  we  can  readily  understand 
how  a  flower  which  contains  both  stamens 
and  pistils,  as  the  apple,  is  perfect,  and  all 
which  do  not  contain  both  organs  are  imper- 
fect. The  greater  part  of  our  common  plants 
have  perfect  flowers.  In  many  of  our  trees, 
as  the  walnut,  butternut,  hickories,  oaks, 
chestnut,  beech,  and  birches,  the  stamens  and 
pistils  are  borne  in  different  flowers  on  the 
same  tree.  Such  plants  are  said  to  be  mon- 
cecious,  —  the  flowers  are  borne  in  "  one 
house."  In  the  willow  and  some  other 
plants  the  staminate  and  pistillate  flowers 
are  borne  on  entirely  distinct  plants,  —  in 
"two  houses,"  and  such  plants  are  termed 


CROSS-FERTILIZA  TION. 


81 


dioecious.  In  some  of  the  maples  there  are 
staminate  and  pistillate  and  perfect  flowers 
on  the  same  plant ;  they  are  polygamous. 

The  pollen  grains  vary  widely  in  size  and 
form.  Some  of  the  forms  are  shown  in  Fig. 
67,  which  represents  respectively  the  pollen 


Fig.  67.     (After  Gray.) 


of  the  musk-plant,  wild  cucumber  (Echino- 
cystis),  mallow,  lily,  chicory,  pine,  and  even- 
ing primrose. 

Cross-Fertilization. 

How  is  the  pollen  transferred  from  the 
anther  to  the  stigma  ?  In  the  perfect  flow- 
ers, where  the  stamens  and  pistils  are  placed 
almost  in  contact,  we  can  readily  imagine 
how  such  transfer  could  take  place,  but  how 
is  it  performed  in  the  monoecious  and  dioa- 
cious  plants  ?  And  if  we  were  to  examine 
critically  the  perfect  flowers,  we  should  find 
that  even  there  this  transfer  is  not  a  simple 


82  TALKS  AFIELD. 

one,  for  in  most  cases  the  anthers  and  stig- 
mas do  not  ripen  simultaneously,  or  there  is 
some  impediment  in  the  way  of  the  simple 
falling  of  the  pollen  upon  a  contiguous 
stigma.  Linnaeus,  and  his  successors  for 
over  half  a  century,  taught  that  the  pollen 
fertilized  the  stigmas  in  the  same  flower. 
Koelreuter,  about  1761,  appears  to  have 
been  the  first  to  recognize  the  aid  of  insects 
or  other  external  agencies  in  the  transfer  of 
the  pollen  ;  but  the  first  observer  who  made 
definite  investigations  and  who  caught  any 
glimpse  of  the  plan  of  nature  in  fertiliza- 
tion was  Conrad  Sprengel,  a  German.  In 
1787  he  studied  the  flowers  of  the  wild  gera- 
nium, and,  attracted  by  the  delicate  hairs 
borne  on  the  interior  of  the  corolla,  and  im- 
pressed with  the  idea  that  "  the  wise  Author 
of  Nature  would  not  have  created  even  a 
hair  in  vain,"  and  becoming  convinced  that 
these  hairs  protect  the  honey  from  rain,  he 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  all  minor  organs 
and  appendages  of  the  flower  subserve  some 
important  end.  He  continued  his  studies, 
and  six  years  later  published  a  small  treatise 
upon  the  subject,  wherein  was  laid  the  first 
stone  in  the  magnificent  science  which  has 
since  been  erected  upon  the  mutual  relations 


FERTILIZATION.  83 

of  plants  to  active  external  agencies.  The 
science  slept,  however,  until  that  critical 
student  of  nature,  Darwin,  made  investiga- 
tions and  published  his  celebrated  work 
upon  the  "  Fertilization  of  Orchids,"  in  1862. 
Since  that  event  a  rich  special  literature  has 
sprung  up,  an  important  part  of  which  has 
been  contributed  by  Darwin  himself. 

Two  terms  which  have  now  come  into 
general  use  are  dose -fertilization,  or  self- 
fertilization,  and  cross-fertilization.  Close- 
fertilization  refers  to  the  impregnation  of  a 
stigma  by  pollen  from  its  own  flower,  while 
cross-fertilization  denotes  the  impregnation 
of  a  stigma  by  pollen  from  a  different  flower. 
It  is  now  known  that  close-fertilization  is 
not  the  common  occurrence  in  the  vegetable 
kingdom,  and  that  in  nearly  all  species  cross- 
fertilization  takes  place  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent.  "  Nature  seems  to  have  wished  that 
no  flower  should  be  fertilized  by  its  own  pol- 
len," said  Sprengel,  a  statement  not  strictly 
true,  for  there  are  some  flowers  in  which 
cross-fertilization  cannot  take  place.  Dar- 
win's statement  is  better :  "  Nature  abhors 
perpetual  self-fertilization." 

It  is  evident  that  cross-fertilization  must 
take  place  in  dioecious  and  mono3cious  plants. 


84  TALKS  AFIELD. 

Here  the  pollen  is  commonly  carried  by  the 
wind,  occasionally  by  insects.  Delpino  has 
called  the  wind-fertilized  plants  anemophi- 
lous,  "  wind  lovers."  Most  grasses  and 
sedges,  although  they  may  have  perfect  flow- 
ers, are  wind-fertilized.  The  flowers  of  ane- 
mophilous  plants  are  usually  small  and  in- 
conspicuous. They  have  no  need  of  showy 
colors.  It  is  only  necessary  that  they  pro- 
duce an  abundance  of  pollen,  much  of  which 
must  be  wasted  by  careless  winds,  and  pos- 
sess a  large  and  rough  stigma  to  catch  the 
floating  grains.  The  grasses  afford  instruct- 
ive examples  of  wind-fertilized  flowers.  Pines 
produce  pollen  in  wonderful  abundance,  and 
the  air  of  pine  forests  is  often  yellow  with  it 
in  spring.  The  "sulphur  showers"  which 
occur  in  some  localities  are  due  to  the  bring- 
ing down  of  this  pollen  by  the  rain.  Many 
farmers  find  that  the  pollen  from  corn  in 
full  tassel  is  irritating  to  the  eyes.  Every 
one  has  noticed  how  suddenly  the  bright  an- 
thers are  thrust  out  on  their  slender  stalks 
from  the  long  heads  of  timothy  and  other 
grasses  ;  were  the  flat  and  feathered  stigmas 
so  conspicuously  colored,  instead  of  being 
greenish-white,  they  would  attract  our  atten- 
tion as  well.  In  Fig.  68  a  grass  flower  en- 


EEL-GRASS. 


85 


larged  and  in  full  bloom  is  shown  in  side 
view  at  a,  the  three  anthers  and  two  stigmas 
protruding.  At  b  is  a  back  view  of  a  flower ; 
c  represents  a  spikelet  of  flowers.  Acquainted 
with  these  facts,  we  can  see  something  of  life 
and  utility  in  the  breeze  that  sways  the  sedge 
or  listlessly  fans  the  meadow. 

Some  dioecious  plants  are  not  fertilized  by 
wind  or  insects.  Along  the  borders  of  slow 
streams,  grow- 
i  n  g  two  or 
three  feet  un- 
der the  water, 
the  eel  -  grass 
or  tape -grass 
is  common. 
The  long  and 
narrow  soft 
green  leaves 
do  not  arrest 
the  attention  of  the  casual  passer-by,  neither, 
perhaps,  do  the  peculiar  clove-shaped  flow- 
ers, an  inch  long  and  greenish-white,  which 
float  at  the  ends  of  long  and  slender  threads. 
When  I  have  repeated  the  story  of  its  be- 
havior this  plant  may  be  deemed  more  wor- 
thy of  attention.  The  staminate  or  male 
plant  bears  many  very  small  and  inconspic- 


Fig.  68. 


86  TALKS  AFIELD. 

uous  flowers,  which  are  collected  in  a  tightly 
covered  ball  and  borne  on  short  stalks  far 
under  water,  as  seen  in  A  in  Fig.  69.  When 
the  little  flowers  are  about  full-grown  the 
covering  of  the  ball  breaks  open,  splits  into 
three  parts,  and  each  flower,  securely  wrapped 
up  in  its  sepals,  separates  itself  from  its 
stemlets  and  rises  to  the  surface  of  the  water. 
When  upon  the  surface  its  three  sepals  open 
and  the  anthers  mature.  The  pollen  is  dis- 
charged upon  the  water  and  is  carried  by 
the  currents  to  the  clove-like  female  flowers 
which  have  raised  themselves  on  long  stalks 
to  reach  the  surface  (5).  The  three  broad 
stigmas  receive  the  pollen,  the  ovules  are 
impregnated,  and  then  the  long  stalk  coils 
up  and  draws  the  fruit  under  water  to  ripen. 
This  curious  plant  bears  a  name  which  does 
honor  to  A.  Vallisneri,  an  early  Italian  bot- 
anist, and  which  records  the  phenomenon  of 
the  spiral  contraction  of  the  flower-stalk :  it 
is  known  as  Vallisneria  spiralis. 

The  most  peculiar  adaptations  for  cross- 
fertilization  are  those  which  attract  insects 
and  other  animals,  and  which  make  the  in- 
sect to  be  an  unconscious  but  an  indispensa- 
ble aid  to  the  plant.  Delpino  calls  these  "  in- 
sect loving  "  plants  entomophilous.  There 


87 


Fig.  69. 


88  TALKS  AFIELD. 

are  nowhere  in  nature  such  examples  of  re- 
ciprocal benefits  as  in  the  relations  of  flowers 
to  insects  and  insects  to  flowers.  The  flower 
attracts  the  insect  by  showy  colors  or  by 
perfume,  and  gives  it  nectar  or  pollen  for 
the  aid  it  renders  in  cross-fertilization.  At- 
tractive petals  and  perfumes  are  the  flower's 
advertisements  to  insects.  If  they  are  re- 
moved the  insect  visits  are  suspended,  and 
the  plant  suffers  in  the  production  of  seeds. 
If  this  strict  utilitarian  view  strips  some  of 
the  poetry  from  flowers,  it  nevertheless  adds 
a  sublimer  sentiment  which  overlooks  a  sim- 
ple adaptation  to  please  the  senses  of  man, 
and  places  the  beauty  of  flowers  upon  the 
plane  of  definite  plan  and  purpose  which 
have  been  slowly  evolved  through  the  ages. 
It  represents  a  beautiful  natural  adaptation 
and  a  sublime  creation. 

Scarcely  two  species  of  entomophilous 
flowers  have  the  same  contrivances  to  insure 
cross-fertilization.  One  of  the  commonest 
modifications  of  the  flower  towards  this  end 
is  dichogamy,  or  the  maturing  of  the  anthers 
and  stigmas  at  different  times.  Flowers 
whose  anthers  develop  first  are  said  to  be 
proterandrous,  and  those  whose  stigmas  de- 
velop first  are  proterogynous.  An  exami- 


INSECT  LOVERS.  89 

nation  of  almost  any  showy  flower  will  reveal 
either  proterandry  or  proterogyny.  When 
the  anthers  are  mature  they  discharge  their 
pollen,  either  by  slits  or  various  kinds  of 
pores  ;  when  the  stigmas  are  fully  matured 
they  usually  present  a  peculiar  viscid  or 
roughened  appearance  under  a  lens.  As  a 
well  -  known  example  of  a  proterogynous 
flower  we  may  take  the  common  figwort  or 
scrophularia,  a  tall  plant,  with  inconspicuous 
small  flowers,  common  along  banks  and  in 
fence-rows.  The  flowers  bear 
a  copious  supply  of  honey ;  in 
fact,  the  plant  is  often  grown 
for  bees,  being  sometimes  known 
as  Simpson's  bee-plant.  In  Fig. 
70  is  shown  a  flower  as  it  ap- 
pears soon  after  opening,  show- 
ing the  ripe  pistil  and  the  an- 
thers curled  up  and  immature.  A  flower  a 
day  or  two  older  would  show  an  over-mature 
and  wilted  style  but  fully  developed  anthers. 
If  a  bee  visits  Fig.  70  in  search  of  honey  it 
lights  upon  the  deflexed  lip  of  the  corolla, 
and  as  its  body  is  thrown  forwards  the 
stigma  rubs  off  any  pollen  which  may  ad- 
here to  the  insect's  body ;  and  when  it  visits 
an  older  flower  the  pregnant  anthers  give  it 


90  TALKS  AFIELD. 

a  new  pollen  supply.  The  hairs  of  bees  and 
other  insects  hold  the  pollen.  It  will  be  seen 
that  this  fertilization  by  the  bee  in  the  fig- 
wort  is  a  hit-and-miss  operation,  and  much 
pollen  must  necessarily  be  wasted.  Still  the 
stigma  cannot  well  be  fertilized  by  the  pol- 
len of  its  own  flower,  for  it  is  not  receptive 
when  the  anthers  mature.  If,  however,  the 
stigma  receives  no  pollen  it  will  probably 
remain  receptive  until  its  own  anthers  ma- 
ture, for  it  prefers  close-fertilization  to  none 
at  all.  It  is  an  interesting  study  to  observe 
the  relative  times  of  maturing  of  anthers 
and  stamens  in  common  flowers.  In  none 
of  the  showy  flowers  do  they  mature  simul- 
taneously unless  there  is  some  special  imped- 
iment in  the  structure  of  the  parts  which 
forbids  close-fertilization. 

Many  plants  are  found  to  have  dimor- 
phous flowers ;  that  is,  perfect  flowers  of  two 
kinds  borne  on  different  plants.  One  plant 
bears  flowers  which  have  long  and  protruding 
styles  and  short,  hidden  stamens,  as  in  A, 
Fig.  71 ;  another  plant  of  this  same  species 
bears  flowers  entirely  opposite  in  character, 
the  stamens  being  long  and  the  styles  short, 
as  in  B.  The  short  stamens  in  A  and  the 
short  style  in  B  always  remain  as  short  as 


INSECT  LOVERS. 


91 


they  are  figured.  These  flowers  are  fertil- 
ized in  much  the  same  manner  as  those  of 
the  figwort.  The  stamens  and  pistils  ma- 


Fig.  71. 

ture  simultaneously.  An  insect  in  visiting 
A  would  brush  off  pollen  on  the  long  style, 
and  as  it  reached  into  the  flower  would  have 
pollen  dusted  upon  its  head  from  the  short 
stamens.  The  insect  visits  B,  and,  by  reach- 
ing into  the  flower,  brushes  some  of  the  pol- 
len from  its  head  on  to  the  short  style,  while 
the  long  stamens  unload  some  of  their  pollen 
on  the  insect's  body,  to  be  applied  to  the 
next  long  style  which  it  visits.  In  this  man- 
ner the  pollen  from  short  stamens  usually 
fertilizes  short  pistils,  and  the  pollen  from 


92 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


long  stamens  fertilizes  long  pistils.  Now,  it 
may  happen  that  pollen  may  be  rubbed  off 
on  to  the  stigma  of  its  own  flower.  What 
then  ?  Simply  this :  the  pollen  is  usually 
powerless  upon  the  stigma  of  its  own  flower. 
Darwin  found  that  the  pollen  either  will  not 
act  upon  its  contiguous  stigma,  or  it  acts 
slowly  and  waits  for  the  more  potent  foreign 
pollen.  Some  plants  have  trimorphous  flow- 
ers, which  bear  sta- 
mens and  petals  of 
different  lengths, 
borne  upon  distinct 
plants. 

A  flower  of  the 
kalmia,  or  common 
wide  -  leaved  moun- 
tain laurel,  is  shown 

in  Fig.  72.  The  ten  anthers  are  held  in 
little  pockets  in  the  co- 
rolla, and  they  are  not  re- 
leased until  some  insect 
touches  them,  when  they 
fly  inward  and  throw 
their  pollen  upon  it.  Fig. 
73  represents  a  pea-flower. 
Fig.  73.  The  ten  stamens  anci  the 

pistil  are  hidden  in  the  small    lower  projec- 


MO  THS  —  H  UMMING-B1RDS.  93 

tion  of  the  flower.  The  bee  lights  upon  this 
lower  portion,  and  its  weight  forces  the  pet- 
als down,  while  the  stigma,  carrying  pollen 
from  the  surrounding  anthers  on  its  hairy 
style,  protrudes  and  strikes  the  bee  and 
dusts  it  with  pollen. 

Many  flowers  are  especially  fitted  for  fer- 
tilization by  moths.  Such  are  most  of  the 
long-tubed  flowers.  As  most  of  the  long- 
tongued  insects  are  nocturnal,  so  many  of 
the  long-tubed  flowers  open  only  at  night, 
and  they  are  furnished  with  light  colors  that 
they  may  be  seen  in  darkness.  Many  of 
them  exhale  strong  perfumes  at  nightfall,  as 
the  petunia.  As  the  moths  whir  about  the 
petunias,  and  the  evening  primroses,  and 
other  flowers  at  nightfall,  think  what  attrac- 
tions the  plants  offer  the  insects,  and  what 
advantages  they  expect  to  derive  from  their 
visits.  Some  long  -  tubed  flowers  are  fer- 
tilized by  humming-birds.  This  is  at  least 
sometimes  the  case  with  the  flowers  of  the 
trumpet  creeper.  Some  flowers  possess  pu- 
trid odors  to  attract  flies,  as  the  common 
herbaceous  smilax  or  carrion-flower.  A  few 
are  fertilized  by  snails. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  in  most  cases  close- 
fertilization  is  a  direct  disadvantage  to  the 


94  TALKS  AFIELD. 

plant ;  it  is  akin  to  the  in-breeding  of  farm 
animals.  The  uniformity  with  which  all 
flowers  favor  cross-fertilization  is  proof  that 
a  foreign  pollen  is  needful  to  insure  the  best 
results  in  the  production  of  seeds.  Darwin 
experimented  with  plants  grown  from  seeds 
produced  by  cross-fertilization  and  those  pro- 
duced by  close-fertilization,  and  the  former 
were  the  most  vigorous.  When  there  is 
cross-fertilization  between  different  species  of 
plants,  as  between  apples  and  pears,  or  wheat 
and  rye,  the  offspring  of  the  seeds  produced 
are  called  hybrids.  In  common  parlance  this 
term  is  incorrectly  used  to  denote  the  off- 
spring of  two  plants  of  the  same  species. 

Hidden  Flowers. 

The  blue  "  hooded  violet,"  Viola  cucul- 
lata,  so  named  from  its  peculiar  habit  of 
folding  the  lower  portion  of  its  leaves  up- 
wards and  inwards,  is  common  in  shady 
glades  all  over  the  North.  Its  large  flowers 
are  bright  and  attractive.  In  a  certain 
shady  nook  there  is  a  patch  of  these 
"  Johnny-jump-ups  "  which  appears  to  be 
continually  renewed  by  new  plants,  and  yet, 
as  I  have  visited  the  patch  every  June  after 
the  flowers  were  gone,  I  could  find  few  seed- 


THE  HOODED   VIOLET. 


95 


pods  and  no  runners,  by  means  of  which  the 
plants  could  renew  themselves.  One  sultry 
August  day  I  wandered  to  this  shady  nook, 
half  forgetful  of  the  violets  that  bloomed 
there  in  the  springtime.  I  could  scarcely 
recognize  the  numerous  great  leaves  raised 
on  their  foot-long  petioles  as  the  full-grown 
individuals  of  which  I  had  seen  the  earlier 
stages,  overtopped  by  the  flowers,  in  May. 
A  careless  scuff  among  the  leaves  disclosed 
a  number  of  peculiar  whitish  buds  on  curved 
peduncles  an  inch  long  and  half  buried  in 
the  dead  leaves  and  the  grass.  (Fig.  74.) 
A  dissection  of  one  of  the  buds  revealed  a 
miniature  flower,  bearing 
no  petals,  to  be  sure,  but 
furnished  with  a  good 
stigma  and  well  -  devel- 
oped anthers.  I  had 
abundant  proof  that  these 
flowers  produced  seeds, 
for  there  were  many  fully 
developed  pods  lying  un- 
der and  upon  the  mould.  Here,  indeed, 
was  a  mystery.  How  was  it  possible  for 
cross-fertilization  to  be  effected  between 
these  hidden,  inconspicuous,  unopened  flow- 
ers ?  There  was  but  one  conclusion  :  these 


96  TALKS  AFIELD. 

flowers  must  fertilize  themselves.  Here  was 
no  expensive  glitter  of  petals,  no  unnecessary 
pollen  to  be  wasted  by  improvident  insects. 
Dame  Nature  had  evidently  constructed 
these  flowers  after  the  strictest  economy,  but 
the  patch  of  violets  still  prospered  and  in- 
creased more  abundantly  than  did  the  yellow 
violets  in  the  neighboring  wood-lot,  which 
produced  quantities  of  hairy  pods  every 
spring.  It  was  a  matter  of  no  little  wonder 
why  the  expensive  blue  flowers  should  be  pro- 
duced at  all,  when  they  apparently  accom- 
plished so  little,  and  the  insignificant  hidden 
flowers  accomplished  so  much ;  still,  I  was 
glad  that  Nature  had  not  adopted  such  a 
penurious  economy  with  all  her  flowers. 

I  soon  learned  that  these  hidden  flowers 
of  the  violet  were  no  new  thing.  Darwin, 
of  course,  had  seen  and  studied  them.  Sub- 
sequently I  found  them  on  many  different 
plants,  as  the  little  dalibarda,  the  wood  sorrel, 
and  others.  Darwin  gives  a  list  of  fifty-five 
genera  which  have  one  or  more  species  upon 
which  the  hidden  or  cleistogamous  flowers 
are  found.  The  LegumiriosaB  or  Pea  family 
contains  more  than  any  other.  Some  of  the 
species  produce  these  flowers  entirely  under 
ground,  as  the  AmphicarpaBa  of  our  woods, 


PLANTS   WITH  HIDDEN  FLOWERS.        97 

while  in  the  grasses  they  are  often  concealed 
in  the  sheaths  of  the  leaves.  In  one  coun- 
try a  species  may  produce  only  cleistogamous 
flowers,  while  in  another  country  it  may  pro- 
duce none.  In  some  parts  of  Russia  the 
little  toad-rush,  or  Juncus  bufonius,  pro- 
duces no  flowers  but  these  hidden  ones,  but 
I  do  not  know  that  such  flowers  have  been 
observed  on  the  plant  in  this  country.  The 
common  wild  touch-me-not,  Impatiens  fulva, 
has  become  naturalized  in  England,  but  it 
seldom  produces  any  other  than  cleistoga- 
mous flowers  there.  The  proportion  of  the 
hidden  to  the  ordinary  showy  flowers  is  about 
20  to  1.  Cleistogamous  flowers  were  some- 
what known  before  the  time  of  Linnaeus, 
and  they  occasioned  warm  discussion  upon 
the  doctrine  of  sexes. 

Cleistogamous  flowers  are  of  benefit  to  the 
plant  in  producing  seeds  economically.  Be- 
sides the  saving  in  petals,  stamens,  pedun- 
cles, and  in  the  diminution  of  parts,  there  is 
a  very  great  saving  of  pollen.  It  is  calcu- 
lated that  the  average  cleistogamous  flower 
of  wood  sorrel  produces  400  pollen  grains, 
of  touch-me-not,  250,  and  of  the  grass  Leer- 
sia,  210.  Compare  these  numbers  with 
243,600  grains  in  a  flower  of  fall  dandelion 


98  TALKS  AFIELD. 

and  the  3,654,000  in  the  peony  !  The  showy 
flowers  occasionally  produce  seeds  through 
the  aid  of  cross-fertilization,  and  such  seeds 
no  doubt  tend  to  correct  the  evil  tendencies 
of  continual  in-breeding. 

The  Arrangement  of  Leaves. 

It  is  usually  a  matter  of  great  surprise  to 
the  uninitiated  in  botany  to  learn  that  the 
leaves  of  plants  are  arranged  in  a  definite 
order.  Can  it  be  possible  that  each  of  the 
ten  thousand  leaves  upon  the  great  elm  in 
front  of  my  window  is  placed  upon  the  twig 
in  such  an  exact  manner  as  to  form  a  part  of 
any  system  of  arrangement  ?  A  little  twig 
from  this  tree  presents 
an  appearance  nearly  like 
Fig.  75.  Beginning  with 
the  lowest  leaf,  we  find 
that  the  third  one  above 
is  directly  over  the  first. 
The  fourth  is  over  the 
second,  the  fifth  over  the 
third,  and  so  on.  If  we 
draw  a  line  from  the  left 
to  the  right  around  the 
75-  stem,  beginning  with  the 

first  leaf,  it  will  complete  the  circumference 


LEAF  ARRANGEMENT.  99 

of  the  stem  when  it  reaches  the  third  leaf. 
The  angular  distance  between  the  first  leaf 
and  the  second  is  just  one  half  the  circum- 
ference of  the  stem,  and  it  is  the  same  be- 
tween the  second  and  the  third.  We  will 


Fig.  76. 

therefore  express  this  distance  by  the  frac- 
tion £.  We  can  use  this  fraction  to  repre- 
sent more  than  the  angular  divergence  :  the 
denominator  2  represents  the  number  of 
leaves  above  the  first  touched  by  one  revolu- 


100  TALKS  AFIELD. 

tion  of  the  line  about  the  stem,  and  the  nu- 
merator records  the  fact  that  the  line  passed 
but  once  about  the  stem  in  finding  a  leaf 
situated  directly  over  the  first. 

Fig.  76  represents  an  alder  twig.  Here 
the  fourth  leaf  is 
over  the  first.  Now 
passing  our  line 
around  the  stem  we 
find  that  it  encoun- 
ters three  leaves,  be- 
y  o  n  d  the  first,  in 
making  one  turn. 
The  angular  diver- 
gence between  the 
leaves  is  J,  and  the 
denominator  records 
the  number  of  leaves 
and  the  numerator 
the  one  revolution. 

An  apple  twig, 
Fig.  77,  represents  a 
more  complicated  ar- 
rangement. In  this 
case  the  sixth  leaf  is 

over  the  first.  Our  line  now  encounters 
five  leaves,  but  it  passes  twice  around  the 
stem  before  it  reaches  a  leaf  situated  di- 


LEAF  ARRANGEMENT.  101 

rectly  over  the  first.  We  roust  now  express 
our  angular  divergence  by  f,  the  5  again 
representing  the  number  of  leaves  and  the  2 
the  number  of  turns  about  the  stem. 

If  we  were  to  examine  the  osage  orange  of 
our  hedges,  the  flax,  or  the  holly,  we  should 
find  the  ninth  leaf  over  the  first,  and  our 
line  would  make  three  turns  about  the  stem. 
This  arrangement  we  must  represent  by  the 
fraction  f .  Let  us  make  a  comparison  of 
these  fractions,  ^,  J,  f ,  |.  If  we  add  to- 
gether the  first  and  second,  just  as  they  stand, 
we  secure  the  third,  and  if  we  add  the  second 
and  third  we  get  the  fourth.  If  we  add  the 
third  and  fourth  in  like  manner  we  get  ^, 
and  the  next  successive  addition  would  give 
us  28r.  These  latter  fractions  are  verified  by 
observation  in  the  cones  of  pines  and  in 
the  rosettes  of  house-leeks,  the  "  hen-and- 
chickens "  of  the  gardens.  The  scales  on 
pine  cones  are  simply  reduced  leaves,  be- 
neath which  are  borne  the  peculiar  flowers. 
In  the  cones  of  some  pines  the  arrangement 
is  expressed  by  Jf  and  f  £,  and  the  florets  in 
the  heads  of  large  sunflowers  are  often  ar- 
ranged after  the  complicated  plan  of  T545?. 
When  the  leaves  are  closely  packed  together, 
as  in  the  pine  cones  and  the  rosettes  of  the 


102  TALKS   AFIELD. 

house-leeks,  we  can  readily  trace  the  spirals 
with  the  eye.  It  is  interesting  to  secure  a 
large  ripe  head  of  a  garden  sunflower,  brush 
off  the  remains  of  the  florets,  and  then  study 


Fig.  78. 

the   various    circles  as    represented  by   the 
black  fruits. 

The  arrangements  above  mentioned  refer 
to  plants  with  alternate  leaves.  Upon  many 
plants  the  leaves  are  opposite,  as  in  Fig.  78, 
and  the  third  pair  of  leaves  is  usually  placed 


LEAF  ARRANGEMENT. 


103 


over  the  first.  Frequently  the  leaves  are 
whorled,  as  shown  in  the 
galium  or  bed  -  straw 
in  Fig.  79.  In  some 
whorls  or  circles  there 
are  ten  or  more  leaves. 
Fascicled  or  clustered 
leaves  are  shown  in 
the  larch  or  tamarck, 
Fig.  80,  and  in  the 
pitch  pine  in  Fig.  81. 
In  the  pines  the  num-  Fig.  79. 

ber  of  leaves  in  a  cluster  is  a  reliable  aid  in 
determining  the  species.  In  the  white  pine 
the  leaves  are  always 
five  in  each  fascicle, 
in  the  scrub  or  Jer- 
sey pine  two,  and  in 
the  pitch  pine  three. 
The  study  of  the  ar- 
leaves  is  known  as 
phyllotaxy,  "  leaf  arrangement."  It 
has  proved  the  existence  of  definite 
order  where  order  is  least  to  be  ex- 
pected. It  has  discovered  this  order  Fis-  81- 
in  the  disposition  of  leaves,  and  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  parts  of  the  flower,  and 
in  many  cases  even  in  the  arrangement  of  the 
seeds  in  the  pod. 


Fig.  80. 
rangement   of 


104  TALKS  AFIELD. 

The  Compass-Plant. 

Adventurers  upon  the  prairies  of  Illinois 
and  upon  the  plains  west  of  the  Mississippi 
early  recognized  a  leaf  compass  in  the  great 
lower  leaves  of  the  rosin-weed.  These  leaves 
stand  nearly  vertical,  with  their  faces  pre- 
sented to  the  east  and  the  west,  and  their 
edges  to  the  north  and  the  south.  So  marked 
is  this  polarity  that  travelers  can  often  di- 
rect their  journey  ings  by  the  positions  of  the 
leaves.  The  first  record  which  was  ever 
made  of  the  polarity  of  the  compass-plant 
was  that  given  by  Major  Benjamin  Alvord 
of  the  United  States  Army  to  a  scientific 
journal  in  1842.  A  second  communication 
appeared  from  him  the  next  year.  So  in- 
credulous were  scientists  in  regard  to  the 
polarity  of  the  plant,  however,  that  Major 
Alvord  in  1849  again  made  record  concern- 
ing it,  this  time  before  a  body  of  scientists 
in  Cambridge,  and  with  the  support  of  state- 
ments by  other  army  officers. 

There  have  been  many  conjectures  as  to 
the  cause  of  the  peculiar  attitude  of  the 
leaves  of  the  rosin-weed.  Major  Alvord  at 
first  supposed  that  the  leaves  contained  suf- 
ficient iron  to  render  them  magnetic,  but  a 


THE  COMPASS-PLANT.  105 

chemical  analysis  disproved  this  proposition. 
It  was  next  supposed  that  the  resinous  char- 
acter of  the  leaves  render  them  susceptible 
to  electrical  currents,  but  rosin  being  a  non- 
conductor of  electricity,  this  hypothesis  also 
fell.  Dr.  Asa  Gray  suggested  the  true  expla- 
nation of  the  phenomenon  :  both  surfaces  of 
the  leaf  have  essentially  the  same  structure, 
there  being  nearly  as  many  stomata  on  the 
upper  as  on  the  under  surface,  —  about 
52,700  to  the  square  inch  above,  and 
57,300  below  ;  this  renders  both  surfaces 
equally  sensitive  to  light,  and  the  leaf  twists 
upon  its  petiole  until  both  sides  share  equally 
in  the  sunlight. 

The  compass-plant  occurs  in  open  glades 
and  on  prairies  from  Michigan  to  some  three 
hundred  miles  west  of  the  Mississippi.  It 
is  a  large  and  coarse  herb,  attaining  the 
height  of  six  or  seven  feet.  It  is  one  of 
the  Composite.  This  is  the  plant  of  which 
Longfellow  speaks  in  Evangeline,  mistaking 
it  for  a  delicate  species  :  — 

"  Look  at  this  delicate  plant  that  lifts  its  head  from  the  mead- 
ow; 
See  how  its  leaves  all  point  to  the  North  as  true  as  the 

magnet : 

It  is  the  compass-plant  that  the  finger  of  God  has  suspended 
Here  on  its  fragile  stalk  to  direct  the  traveler's  journey 
Over  the  sea-like,  pathless,  limitless  waste  of  the  desert." 


106  TALKS   AFIELD. 

Other  plants  beside  the  rosin-weed  show 
polarity  in  their  leaves.  It  is  conspicuous 
in  the  stem  leaves  of  the  lettuce-weed,  Lac- 
tuca  Scariola,  a  tall  plant  which  occurs  along 
streets  in  northern  cities,  a  waif  from  Eu- 
rope. Closely  allied  to  this  plant  is  the  gar- 
den lettuce,  but  not  until  last  year,  when 
Professor  J.  C.  Arthur  observed  the  circum- 
stance, were  its  leaves  known  to  exhibit 
polarity.  If  the  plant  be  allowed  to  go  to 
seed  the  leaves  along  the  stem  usually  show 
the  phenomenon.  Some  leaves  of  the  com- 
mon horse-weed,  or  mare's  tail,  Erigeron 
Canadense,  are  found  by  Dr.  W.  J.  Beal  to 
exhibit  polarity. 

How  Some  Plants  get  up  in  the  World. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  Nature  does 
nothing  solely  for  display  ;  all  her  beauty 
subserves  some  definite  economy.  She  makes 
the  useful  the  beautiful;  utility  comes  be- 
fore beauty.  This  fact  should  make  her  at- 
tractions more  attractive,  for  while  it  does 
not  lessen  the  beauty,  it  increases  the  convic- 
tion that  definite  plan  and  purpose,  that  per- 
fect adaptability,  are  everywhere  present. 
We  love  the  flower  the  more  when  we  know 
that  the  beautiful  colors  and  perfume  are  the 


CLIMBING  PLANTS. 


107 


means  of  perpetuating  the  species.  So  we 
have  more  regard  for  climbing  plants  when 
we  learn  that  their  graceful  climbing  raises 
them  into  the  sunlight  which  is  necessary 
for  their  growth.  Many  more  plants  can 
grow  upon  any  piece  of  ground  if  a  part  of 


Fig.  82, 

them    are    climbers,   than    if    all   are    stiff- 
stemmed  plants  which  crowd  each  other. 

We  may  make  five  tolerably  definite  di- 
visions of  climbing  plants,  based  upon  the 
manner  in  which  they  climb :  scramblers, 
root-climbers,  leaf -climbers,  twiners,  and  ten- 
dril-climbers. The  scramblers  are  not  true 


108  TALKS  AFIELD. 

climbing  plants.  They  include  such  plants 
as  the  briers  and  brambles,  which  scramble 
over  bushes  by  means  of  hooks  or  bracing 
leaves.  The  root-climbers  send  out  roots, 
which  adhere  to  trees  and  walls.  These 
roots  shun  the  light  and  dive  into  crevices, 
where  they  attach  themselves.  The  poison 
ivy  is  a  familiar  example.  The  leaf-climbers 
are  not  numerous  in  the  Northern  States. 
The  most  familiar  example  is  the  common 
clematis  or  virgin's  bower,  which  coils  its 
leaf-stalk  about  a  support,  as  in  Fig.  82.  The 
most  interesting  of  the  climbers,  however, 
are  the  twiners  and  tendril-bearers,  and  to 
them  we  will  turn  our  attention  in  a  more 
particular  manner. 

Twiners.  — We  will  commence  with  a 
young  plant  of  the  hop.  The  first  two  or 
three  "  joints,"  or,  more  properly,  the  inter- 
nodes,  as  the  plant  rises  from  the  ground, 
are  upright  and  stationary.  The  space  be- 
tween one  joint  or  node  of  the  stem  and 
another  is  termed  an  internode,  a  term  which 
it  will  be  convenient  to  use.  If  we  watch 
the  young  internodes  as  they  grow,  above  the 
second  and  third,  we  shall  notice  that  they 
do  not  stand  upright,  neither  do  they  remain 
long  in  one  position.  At  different  times  we 


TWINERS.  109 

shall  find  them  pointing  towards  the  east,  the 
south,  or  the  north  ;  in  short,  they  are  revolv- 
ing in  search  of  something  to  twine  upon. 
When  the  young  intern  ode  is  very  short,  say 
two  or  three  inches  long,  its  motion  is  so 
slow  as  scarcely  to  be  observed.  If  we  mark 
the  position  of  its  tip,  however,  at  different 
times  of  the  day,  we  find  that  it  makes  a 
complete  revolution  in  about  twenty-four 
hours.  As  the  shoot  increases  in  length  the 
motion  becomes  more  rapid,  a  complete  revo- 
lution being  made  in  two  or  three  hours.  If 
the  shoot  strikes  no  support,  it  will  make 
thirty  or  more  revolutions  and  then  become 
rigid.  Before  this  number  of  revolutions 
has  been  made,  other  and  younger  inter- 
nodes  will  have  been  formed,  and  they  re- 
volve in  the  same  manner  as  the  first  and 
lower  one.  All  the  younger  internodes  will 
be  carried  around  by  the  lowest  one  which  is 
revolving,  and  each  one  will  be  making  its 
own  separate  revolution,  so  that  the  whole 
stem  presents  a  peculiarly  crooked  appear- 
ance. About  three  internodes  will  be  in 
motion  at  one  time.  The  circle  which  the 
tip  of  the  stem  describes  may  be  four  or  five 
feet  in  diameter,  and  it  will  move  at  times 
over  thirty  inches  an  hour.  There  is  an- 


110  TALKS  AFIELD. 

other  peculiarity  about  this  movement :  it  is 
always  in  one  direction,  from  the  right  to 
the  left  of  the  observer,  or  in  a  course  coin- 
ciding with  that  of  the  sun.  If  the  revolv- 
ing shoot  were  to  strike  a  thin  stick,  it  would 
coil  about  the  stick  in  the  same  direction  in 
which  it  was  revolving,  the  same  as  a  rope 
swung  around  the  head  would  coil  about  a 
stick  which  should  come  in  its  way. 

We  can  extend  our  observations  to  other 
twiners  with  equal  interest.  Most  of  them 
revolve  in  an  opposite  direction  from  the 
hop,  or  in  a  course  opposed  to  the  apparent 
motion  of  the  sun  or  the  direction  of  the 
movement  of  the  hands  of  a  watch.  Beans, 
morning-glories,  wistarias,  and  others  twine 
in  this  direction.  With  very  few  exceptions 
the  plants  of  one  species  always  twine  in  one 
direction.  In  some  cases  the  tip  of  the 
shoot  is  abruptly  bent  or  hooked,  and  it  is 
thus  enabled  to  grasp  a  support  more  read- 
ily. Vines  seldom  twine  about  a  large  sup- 
port, as  the  tip  of  the  shoot  has  nothing  to 
support  it  while  making  the  first  long  coil. 
This  inability  to  grasp  a  support  four  or  five 
inches  in  diameter  is  a  direct  advantage  to 
the  plant,  as  it  prevents  the  wasting  of 
growth  ;  the  same  length  of  stem  will  raise 


TENDRIL-CLIMBERS.  Ill 

a  plant  much  higher  when  coiled  about  a 
thin  support  than  about  a  thick  one.  The 
upward  movement  of  any  part  of  the  plant 
does  not  cease  when  it  has  coiled  itself  about 
a  support,  especially  if  the  support  is  smooth. 
The  coil  of  a  twiner  may  be  aptly  compared 
to  a  compressed  spiral  spring;  the  coil  be- 
comes looser  and  slides  up  the  support.  If 
the  support  is  not  a  high  one  the  coil  will 
sometimes  bound  off  its  top,  and  often  the 
shoot  begins  again  to  revolve. 

The  immediate  cause  of  the  revolving  of 
the  shoots  of  twiners  is  the  lengthening  of 
the  cells  on  one  side  of  the  shoot  more  than 
on  the  other.  When  the  cells  elongate  on 
one  side  the  shoot  is  bent  over,  pushed  over, 
and  it  becomes  convex  on  that  side.  If  now 
the  cells  elongate  still  more  a  little  to  one 
side  of  the  first  elongation,  the  greater  con- 
vexity will  occur  at  that  point,  and  the  tip 
of  the  shoot  will  be  moved  from  its  original 
position.  If  this  elongation  were  to  travel 
gradually  all  around  the  stem  from  the  point 
of  starting,  all  the  sides  would  in  turn  as- 
sume the  greatest  convexity,  and  the  tip 
would  have  made  a  complete  revolution. 
The  convexity  of  the  shoots  of  twiners  is 
readily  verified  by  observation.  Each  inter- 


112  TALKS  AFIELD. 

node  may  be  likened  to  a  bow  which  has  its 
convex  and  its  concave  sides  directed  suc- 
cessively to  every  point  of  the  compass.  It 
is  not  to  be  understood  that  this  elongation  or 
growth  is  uniform  on  all  sides  of  the  stem ; 
in  fact,  it  is  commonly  not  so,  and  the  shoots 
oftener  revolve  in  ellipses  or  irregular  paths 
than  in  true  circles.  One  ordinarily  asso- 
ciates the  revolving  with  a  twisting  of  the 
stem,  but  no  such  twisting  takes  place  to 
any  extent.  There  are  three  reasons  why 
twisting  of  the  stem  does  not  cause  the  mo- 
tion :  the  young  shoot  begins  its  revolution 
before  any  twisting  is  to  be  observed ;  few 
stems  twist  more  than  three  times  around 
while  they  make  thirty  or  more  revolutions  ; 
many  plants  revolve  which  never  twist. 

Tendril -Climbers.  —  The  tendril-climbers 
exhibit  more  remarkable  peculiarities  than 
the  twiners.  Before  us  is  a  picture  (Fig. 
83)  of  the  "wild  cucumber"  or  Echinocystis 
of  our  glades,  and  which  is  now  generally 
grown  over  windows  and  bushes.  Opposite 
the  three-lobed  leaf  is  a  three-parted  tendril. 
A  critical  observation  of  the  growing  plant 
would  discover  a  revolution  of  the  two  upper 
internodes  the  same  as  in  twiners,  only  of  less 
extent.  The  tendrils  also  revolve,  sweeping 


114  TALKS  AFIELD. 

through  ellipses  or  circles  several  inches  in 
diameter.  The  parts  of  the  tendril  revolve 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  strike  the  stem  of 
the  plant  if  there  were  not  some  counteract- 
ing motion.  They  avoid  striking  the  stem 
by  bending  abruptly  upwards  just  before 
they  reach  it,  and  after  they  have  passed  it 
they  again  fall  into  their  inclined  position. 
In  most  tendril-climbers  the  young  shoot  is 
bent  to  one  side  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
avoid  the  revolving  tendril.  The  concave 
side  of  the  tip  of  the  tendril  is  highly  sen- 
sitive to  a  touch,  and  when  it  strikes  a  stick 
it  coils  about  it  in  one  or  two  minutes.  If 
the  tendril  is  rubbed  it  will  begin  to  coil 
and  cease  its  motion,  but  after  a  time  it  will 
resume  its  former  shape  and  begin  again  to 
revolve.  Almost  any  touch,  ever  so  slight, 
will  induce  the  coiling,  although  raindrops, 
coming  with  much  force,  have  no  effect  upon 
it.  Although  the  sensitive  tendril  coils  so 
readily  about  any  support  which  it  touches, 
still  if  two  tendrils  should  strike  together 
they  do  not  coil,  but  shake  hands  and  pass 
by.  If  a  vine  be  thrown  from  its  support 
to  the  ground  so  that  the  tendrils  hang 
downwards,  these  organs  cease  for  the  time 
to  revolve,  but  soon  raise  themselves  to  a 


TENDRIL-CLIMBERS.  115 

horizontal  position,  when  they  begin  again 
to  move. 

About  a  day  after  a  tendril  of  the  wild 
cucumber  has  found  a  support  and  has  at- 
tached itself,  it  begins  to  coil  up,  drawing 
the  plant  closer  to  the  support.  Now  simple 
coiling  must  always  be  accompanied  by  the 
revolving  of  the  end  of  the  tendril  as  many 
times  as  there  are  turns  in  the  coil,  or  if  the 
end  is  fastened  the  tendril  must  twist  that 
many  times.  Both  these  things  are  impossi- 
ble in  this  tendril,  for  the  end  is  secured, 
and  the  continued  twisting  would  soon  rend 
it.  A  glance  at  the  figure  will  solve  the 
difficulty.  There  is  a  blank  place  in  the 
centre  of  the  tendril,  and  there  is  an  equal 
number  of  coils  on  each  side  of  this  space. 
In  other  words,  the  lower  part  of  the  tendril 
has  coiled  in  one  direction,  and  the  upper 
part  has  coiled  just  as  many  times  in  an 
opposite  direction.  This  simple  arrangement 
occurs  in  all  revolving  tendrils.  The  spiral 
coiling  of  the  tendrils  means  more  than  sim- 
ply drawing  the  plant  closer  to  the  support. 
The  coils  are  highly  elastic,  and  during  wind 
storms  they  stretch  and  throw  the  strain 
nearly  equally  upon  all  contiguous  tendrils. 
If  the  tendrils  were  straight  they  would  be 


116  TALKS  AFIELD. 

almost  immediately  snapped  during  a  gale. 
Darwin  used  to  go  during  gales  to  a  hedge 
where  the  bryony,  a  nearly  related  plant, 
grew  in  abundance  to  watch  the  behavior  of 
the  tendrils.  He  says  that  the  plant  always 
"  safely  rode  out  the  gale  like  a  ship  with 
two  anchors  down,  and  with  a  long  range 
of  cable  ahead  to  serve  as  a  spring  as  she 
surges  to  the  storm." 

If  a  tendril  which  has  come  in  contact 
with  a  support  and  has  wound  half  way 
around  it  be  examined  again  in  a  day  or 
two,  it  will  be  found  to  have  coiled  two  or 
three  times  around  the  support,  although  it 
may  not  have  increased  in  length.  From  a 
number  of  experiments  Darwin  concluded 
that  the  tendril  actually  crawls  around  the 
stick  by  an  undulatory,  worm-like  motion. 
If  a  tendril  is  not  fortunate  enough  to  find 
a  support  it  remains  straight  for  several 
days,  as  if  in  wait ;  but  finally  it  drops  down 
and  coils  up  in  one  continuous  direction, 
and  is  thereafter  useless.  The  coil  of  ten- 
drils about  a  support,  unlike  that  of  the 
stems  of  twiners,  is  not  necessarily  in  the 
direction  of  the  free  revolution. 

The  tendril  of  the  pea  is  the  transformed 
extremity  of  a  compound  leaf,  each  branch 


TENDRIL-CLIMBERS. 


117 


of  the  tendril  representing  a  leaflet.  All 
tendrils  are  understood  to  be  transformed 
leaves,  flower-stalks,  or  other  organs.  That 
of  the  woodbine,  Fig.  84,  is  a  transformed 
flower  branch.  The  tendrils  of  the  pea  re- 
volve in  ellipses,  making  a  revolution  in 
about  an  hour  and  a  half.  In  this  case  only 


Fig.  84. 

side  tendrils  coil  when  a  support  is  reached, 
the  terminal  one  remaining  straight. 

There  are  many  curious  modifications  of 
tendrils.  In  the  Virginia  creeper  or  wild 
woodbine  they  end  in  disks,  which  hold  to 
trees  with  great  tenacity.  These  disks  are 
not  shown  in  the  figure.  In  the  bignonia  of 
our  Southern  States  they  shun  the  light, 
after  the  manner  of  roots,  and  find  their 
way  into  deep  crevices  for  attachment. 


118  TALKS  AFIELD. 

Carnivorous  Plants. 

It  is  an  interesting  discovery  of  modern 
science  that  many  plants  catch  small  ani- 
mals and  eat  them.  It  is  a  discovery  which 
taxes  our  credulity  if  we  accept  it,  and  still 
one  which  is  easy  of  verification  by  every 
one.  Few  discoveries  relating  to  animals 
and  plants  have  excited  more  wonder  or 
called  forth  more  comment  than  this.  This 
comment  has  not  been  confined  to  scientific 
journals ;  nearly  every  periodical  has  had 
something  to  say  about  it. 

''What's  this  I  hear 
About  the  new  carnivora  ? 

Can  little  plants 

Eat  bugs  and  ants 

And  gnats  and  flies  ?  — 
A  sort  of  retrograding : 

Surely  the  fare 
"   Of  flowers  is  air, 

Or  sunshine  sweet; 

They  should  n't  eat, 
Or  do  aught  so  degrading." 

Although  the  statement  that  many  plants 
are  truly  carnivorous  is  startling,  it  is  never- 
theless verified  by  abundant  investigations, 
and  it  has  taken  its  place  among  the  undis- 
puted facts  of  botanical  science.  We  can 
best  understand  the  nature  of  carnivorous 


PITCHER  PLANTS.  119 

plants    by  studying    two   or  three    common 
species. 


Fig.  85. 

The  curious  side-saddle  flower  or  pitcher 
plant,  Sarracenia  purpurea  (Fig.  85),  oc- 
curs in  mossy  swamps  all  through  the  North- 


120  TALKS  AFIELD. 

eastern  States,  while  southward  there  are 
other  and  more  peculiar  species.  The  leaves 
of  these  odd  plants  are  transformed  into 
long  tight  trumpets  or  pitchers,  which  al- 
ways contain  water.  Berry-pickers  who  fre- 
quent swamps  for  whortleberries  and  cran- 
berries often  know  them  as  "Indian  dip- 
pers," and  they  use  them  as  cups  to  dip 
water  from  the  creek.  A  single  large  and 
very  curious  purple  flower  nods  from  a  long 
stem  in  spring  and  from  its  fancied  resem- 
blance to  a  side-saddle  has  originated  one  of 
the  popular  names  of  the  plant.  If  the  con- 
tents of  a  pitcher  be  examined  the  fluid  will 
be  found  to  contain  quantities  of  dead  and 
decaying  insects  which  have  fallen  into  it. 
A  study  of  the  pitchers  will  soon  convince 
us  that  the  presence  of  the  insects  is  not 
purely  accidental.  They  are  attracted  to 
the  open  pitcher,  light  upon  its  rim,  and 
venturing  too  far  they  fall  into  or  slide 
down  the  cavity,  and  they  are  prevented 
from  making  an  escape  by  the  stiff  and 
sharp  hairs  which  point  downwards  like  so 
many  bayonets.  When  they  have  fallen 
into  the  liquid,  which  is  not  entirely  water, 
they  are  soon  drowned,  and  the  plant  feeds, 
in  a  saprophytic  manner,  upon  their  re- 
mains. 


PITCHER  PLANTS.  121 

Our  Northern  pitcher  plant  is  less  actively 
insectivorous  than  some  of  the  Southern 
species,  and  especially  less  than  the  Sarrace- 
nia  variolaris,  which  has  been  minutely 
studied.  In  this  species  a  hood  or  cover 
projects  over  the  mouth  of  the  pitcher,  ex- 
cluding all  rain.  The  pitcher  secretes  a 
viscid  liquid,  which  speedily  dispatches  all  un- 
fortunate insects  which  fall  into  it.  About 
the  mouth  of  the  pitcher  is  a  secretion  of  a 
sugar-like  substance,  which  attracts  numer- 
ous flies  and  smaller  insects.  This  secretion 
extends  even  down  the  outside  of  the  pitcher 
to  the  ground,  presenting  a  honey-baited 
pathway,  which  arrests  all  wandering  insects, 
especially  ants,  and  allures  them  upward  to 
the  fatal  opening.  Once  upon  the  rim  of 
the  pitcher  they  gorge  themselves  with  the 
delectable  honey,  unwarily  getting  a  little 
farther  down  on  the  inside,  until  finally  they 
slip  on  the  glossy  surface  and  soon  find 
themselves  inextricably  entangled  among 
the  bristling  deflexed  hairs.  All  attempts 
to  escape  are  futile,  and  they  soon  come  in 
contact  with  the  viscid  liquid,  from  which 
they  are  never  rescued.  So  perfect  is  this 
fly  trap  that  a  fly  or  other  insect  never  es- 
capes from  it.  It  is  said  that  the  plants  are 


122  TALKS  AFIELD. 

sometimes  grown  about  the  house  as  fly- 
traps, but  although  they  catch  flies  in  abun- 
dance the  odor  from  the  decaying  insects 
is  not  pleasant.  The  plant  absorbs  food 
from  the  miogled  contents  of  its  pitchers. 
So  persistently  do  some  of  the  Sarracenias 
catch  flies  that  they  cannot  be  cultivated  on 
account  of  the  bursting  of  the  pitchers  from 
overloading  unless  the  mouths  are  closed 
with  cotton.  Some  animals  have  learned  of 
the  peculiar  habit  of  the  Sarracenias  and 
have  taken  to  stealing  the  food  which  the 
plant  has  caught.  Two  species  of  insects,  a 
fly  and  a  moth,  are  habitually  associated  with 
some  of  the  Southern  pitcher-plants.  They 
have  learned  apparently  to  evade  the  seduc- 
tive honey  and  the  fatal  trap,  and  in  some 
manner  drop  their  eggs  into  the  mingled 
contents  of  the  pitcher,  where  the  larvaB 
thrive.  Birds  are  said  to  slit  the  pitchers  to 
secure  the  insects. 

A  very  singular  plant,  closely  allied  to  the 
Sarracenias,  is  the  Darlingtonia  of  Califor- 
nia, represented  in  miniature  in  Fig.  86. 
This  plant  grows  in  the  vicinity  of  Mt. 
Shasta  at  an  altitude  of  1,000  to  6,000  feet. 
The  pitchers  are  eighteen  to  twenty-four 
inches  high  and  an  inch  or  less  in  diame- 


124  TALKS  AFIELD. 

ter,  except  at   the  inflated  top.     They  are 
spirally  twisted  about  half  a  revolution,  the 
twist   being  usually  to  the  left.     Running 
lengthwise  the  pitcher  is  a  narrow  wing,  ex- 
tending  from   the    ground   to    the     orifice. 
This  wing  is  best  seen  in  the  pitcher  to  the 
right  in  Fig.  86.     The  top  of  the  pitcher  is 
an  inflated   sac  two  to  four  inches    across, 
with  translucent  dots  or  windows  in  its  roof, 
and  having  an  opening  underneath  an  inch 
or  less  in  diameter.    At  the  upper  extremity 
of  this  opening  hangs  a  two-lobed  blade,  re- 
sembling a  fish's  tail,  which  is  attractively 
colored  and  peculiarly  twisted,  and  furnished 
on  its  inside  with  stiff  hairs  pointing  up- 
wards.    Like  the  Sarracenias  this  plant  has 
the    honey -bait    about   the    mouth   of    the 
pitcher  and  the  secreted  fluid  in  the  tube. 
A   crawling   insect   finds   the   base    of   the 
pitcher,  and  wishing  to  explore  follows  the 
fence-like  wing  upwards  until  he  comes  to 
the  sweet-lipped  brim.     Other  insects  are  at 
once  attracted  by  the  gaudy  fish-tail  blade, 
and  they  light  upon  its  outer  surface.     This 
blade  is  twisted  in  such  a  manner  that  an 
insect  lights  upon  the  outside,  follows  the 
enticing  folds,  and  presently  finds   himself 
upon  the  inside  of   it.     He  walks  upwards 


SUNDEW.  125 

easily,  but  the  instant  he  turns  back  the 
menacing  bayonet  hairs  prevent  his  prog- 
ress. He  keeps  011  and  now  he  begins  to 
scent  the  feast  of  honey  which  is  spread 
for  him.  He  enters  the  opening,  eats,  be- 
comes satiated,  and  decides  to  leave.  He 
looks  for  a  place  of  egress,  and  is  attracted 
by  the  pretty  windows  in  the  roof.  He  be- 
comes bewildered  in  this  dim  Castle  of  the 
Doges,  and  every  step  over  the  deceptive 
hairs  brings  him  nearer  his  doom. 

The  family  Sarraceniaea3,  to  which  these 
plants  belong,  is  restricted  to  the  New  World. 
It  is  represented  by  three  genera :  Sarrace- 
nia,  with  six  species,  inhabiting  the  Eastern 
United  States  ;  Darlingtonia,  with  its  one 
species,  D.  Californica;  and  Heliamphora, 
with  its  one  species,  H.  nutans,  in  Venezuela. 
All  the  species  bear  pitchers,  and  they  are  all 
insectivorous. 

The  sundew  is  an  unattractive  plant,  which 
grows  in  swamps  and  wet  places.  It  is 
represented  nearly  natural  size  in  Fig.  87. 
The  peculiar  ladle-like  leaves  are  trimmed 
with  bristling  hairs,  which  bear  on  their  ends 
little  drops  of  glistening  "  dew  "  which  give 
the  plant  its  name.  These  hairs  are  known 
as  tentacles.  If  any  object  falls  upon  the 


Fig.  87. 


SUNDEW.  127 

leaf  the  tentacles  begin  slowly  to  move  in- 
wards, until  they  finally  shut  down  tightly 
over  the  object,  as  we  can  imagine  the  fin- 
gers to  shut  down  over  an  object  in  the 
palm  of  the  hand.  We  will  suppose  this 
object  to  be  an  insect.  As  soon  as  it  alights 
upon  the  leaf  the  tentacles  throw  out  more 
of  the  viscid  "  dew,"  which  holds  him  se- 
curely, and  the  more  he  struggles  the  more 
the  substance  is  poured  out  and  the  faster 
the  surrounding  tentacles  come  to  the  aid  of 
the  weak  ones  near  the  centre  of  the  leaf. 
Once  upon  the  leaf  the  insect  is  doomed. 
The  leaves  of  the  drosera  or  sundew  lie 
upon  the  ground,  and  they  are  therefore 
more  apt  to  be  visited  by  ants  and  other 
crawling  insects.  If  an  unfortunate  ant 
comes  in  contact  with  one  of  the  extended 
tentacles  he  is  caught  by  the  attractive  glue, 
and  the  tentacle  at  once  begins  to  move  in- 
wards just  as  a  finger  is  bent  over  to  the 
palm.  The  tentacle  does  not  go  alone,  but 
its  neighbors  come  to  the  feast  as  well.  When 
the  insect  is  thoroughly  entrapped  under  a 
number  of  deflexed  tentacles,  an  acid  secre- 
tion is  thrown  out  which  digests  it.  After 
the  feast  is  over  the  tentacles  return  to  their 
former  position  and  lie  in  wait  for  another 


128  TALKS  AFIELD. 

victim.  If  a  little  stone  should  drop  on  the 
leaf  the  tentacles  are  summoned  in  more 
slowly  than  before,  and  finding  out  their 
mistake  they  return  to  their  normal  position 
much  more  rapidly.  A  tentacle  will  often 
begin  to  move  in  ten  seconds  after  it  is 
touched,  and  in  from  one  hour  to  four  hours 
it  will  be  completely  deflexed.  Mr.  Darwin 
fed  beef  to  plants  of  sundew  and  they  ac- 
cepted it  as  readily  as  an  insect.  Although 
the  pressure  of  a  gnat's  foot  will  cause  a 
tentacle  to  move,  a  drop  of  rain  will  not 
affect  it ! 

The  Venus'  fly-trap,  or  dionoea,  of  North 
Carolina,  is  a  botanical  ally  of  the  interest- 
ing sundew,  but  its  contrivance  for  captur- 
ing insects  is  very  different.  The  leaves  are 
borne  at  the  base  of  the  flower-stalk,  as  in 
the  sundew.  Fig.  88  represents  three  of  the 
leaves.  The  trap  portion  has  two  valves  or 
jaws,  about  the  edge  of  which  are  stiff  and 
insensitive  hairs  or  bristles.  The  trap  se- 
cretes no  viscid  material  to  hold  the  insect. 
Two  or  three  hairs  on  the  inner  faces  of  these 
jaws  are  highly  sensitive,  and  the  slightest 
touch  will  cause  the  trap  to  fly  together,  the 
bristles  interlocking  like  the  teeth  of  a  bear- 
trap.  The  unwary  insect  is  caught  before 


D10NCEA. 


129 


he  thinks  of  danger.  The  jaws  do  not  at 
once  close  completely,  however.  The  teeth 
interlock  and  the  jaws  remain  a  little  ajar, 
and  this  allows  any  very  small  insect,  which 
is  not  worth  the  plant's  consideration,  to  es- 


cape. 


Fig.  88. 

A  larger  insect,  upon  finding  escape 


impossible,  would  again  touch  the  sensitive 
hairs  in  his  struggles,  and  the  jaws  would 
close  tightly  and  crush  him.  As  soon  as  the 
jaws  come  together  a  digestive  secretion  is 
poured  out  from  the  leaf,  and  the  jaws  re- 


130 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


main  in  contact  until  the  insect  is  digested, 
—  eaten  up  !  They  then  open  to  allure  an- 
other insect.  The  little  hairs,  although  sen- 
sitive to  the  slightest  touch,  are  not  influ- 
enced by  wind  or  rain. 

The  Smallest  of  Flowering  Plants. 
"  The  green  mantle  of  the  standing  pool  " 
is  usually  caused  by  one  of  three  sorts  of 


Fig.  90. 

plants,  either  long  and  slimy  threads  of  zyg- 
neraa  and  allied  alga3,  or  flattened  disks  of 
green  a  quarter  of  an  inch  or  less  across,  or 
minute  green  grains.  The  algae  we  have  re- 
ferred to  in  our  earlier  pages,  but  the  disks 
and  the  grains  are  still  new  to  us. 

The  little  leaf -like  disks  are  complete 
plants,  floating  free,  and  hanging  their  roots 
into  the  water.  They  are  known  as  the 
duck-meats,  or  to  botanists  as  lemnas.  In 
the  Northern  States  there  are  about  six  spe- 
cies, of  which  the  commonest,  Lemna  minor, 


LEMNA  -  WOLFFIA.  131 

is  represented  in  Fig.  89.  The  flowers  — 
for  these  little  plants  produce  true  flowers  — 
are  produced  from  the  margin  of  the  frond 
or  leaf -portion,  as  in  Fig.  90.  In  the  North- 
ern States  some  of  the  species  have  never 
been  seen  to  flower,  although  L.  minor  blos- 
soms abundantly  in  sheltered  ponds.  They 
propagate  largely  by  a  sort  of  budding.  A 
new  individual  grows  out  from  a  cleft  in  the 


Fig.  91. 

old  frond,  and  after  a  time  detaches  itself 
and  becomes  free.  In  the  fall  little  buds 
or  frondlets  are  formed,  which  sink  to  the 
bottom  of  the  pond,  and  rise  and  vegetate  in 
the  spring. 

It  is  to  the  floating  grains,  however,  that 
I  wish  to  call  attention  at  present.  They 
are  represented  at  about  natural  size  in  Fig. 
91,  at  A.  These  little  bodies  are  the  small- 
est flowering  plants  known.  They  consist 
simply  of  a  minute  frond,  entirely  destitute 
of  roots.  There  are  two  species  in  the  North- 
ern States,  one  distinguished  by  its  globular 


132  TALKS  AFIELD. 

form  and  its  habit  of  floating  a  little  be- 
neath the  surface,  and  the  other  (enlarged 
at  7?)  flattened  above  and  floating  on  the 
surface.  Although  these  plants  are  so  very 
small,  they  often  occur  in  immense  quanti- 
ties. I  have  seen  them  piled  up  five  inches 
deep  on  the  borders  of  a  wind-swept  pond. 
At  0  in  Fig.  91  is  shown  a  plant  in  flower, 
the  front  half  of  the  plant  being  cut  away. 
The  little  plant  is  monoecious ;  the  stamen,  s, 
comprises  one  flower  and  the  globular  pistil, 
p,  the  other.  They  are  both  sunk  nearly  to 
their  tops  in  the  frond.  These  plants  prob- 
ably do  not  blossom  in  this  northern  climate. 
They  propagate  after  the  manner  of  the 
lemnas  by  means  of  offshoots.  In  C  is 
shown  a  young  frond,  6,  springing  from  the 
parent. 

Some  forty  years  ago  a  Frenchman,  Mons. 
H.  Weddell,  was  traveling  on  the  Paraguay 
River,  in  South  America,  and  having  shot  a 
rare  water-bird,  he  observed  that  its  feathers 
were  covered  with  peculiar  green  grains. 
Upon  turning  to  the  pond  where  the  bird 
had  been  wading  he  observed  that  it  also 
was  covered  with  the  little  grains.  Mons. 
Weddell  was  a  botanist,  and  he  soon  found 
that  the  little  plant  was  in  full  bloom.  He 


WITCH-HAZEL.  133 

recognized  it  as  a  new  species  of  the  genus 
Wolffia,  and  named  it  from  the  country 
in  which  he  found  it,  Wolffia  Brasiliensis. 
The  plant  has  since  been  found  on  our  own 
ponds.  It  is  the  flat-topped  species  pictured 
in  Fig.  91.  The  genus  Wolffia  does  honor 
to  John  F.  Wolff,  a  German,  who  wrote  in 
1801  upon  the  lemnas. 

If  we  were  to  attempt  to  find  the  aver- 
age in  size  of  flowering  plants  between  the 
two  extremes,  —  the  pigmy  Wolffia  and  the 
giant  eucalyptus  of  Australia  or  the  redwood 
of  California,  —  we  should  be  obliged  to  se- 
lect a  plant  about  twenty  inches  high,  —  say 
a  geranium  of  the  window-garden. 

Witch-Hazel. 

The  common  witch-hazel,  the  tenacious 
bush  which  so  often  brings  trouble  into 
newly-cleared  pastures,  is  one  of  the  most 
unique  and  interesting  of  all  the  shrubs  of 
the  American  forest.  It  possesses  the  strange 
habit  of  counterfeiting  spring  by  putting 
forth  its  flowers  with  the  falling  of  the 
leaves.  The  narrow  band-like  petals  imitate 
the  prevailing  yellow  colors  of  the  autumn. 
The  flowers  are  conspicuous  and  pretty,  still 
they  are  commonly  overlooked.  One  does 


134 


TALKS  AFIELD. 


not     ex- 
pect    to 

see  flowers  on  bare  or 
sere  -  leaved  branches  in 
October. 

The  flowers  of  the  witch-hazel 
wither  with  the  nearer  approach 
of  winter ;  in  early  spring  the 
dried  remains  of  the  petals  still 
clothe  the  branches.  With  the 
advent  of  warm  weather  the 
nuts  begin  to  form,  and  by  the 
next  autumn  they  are  mature,  as 
shown  at  a,  Fig.  93.  These 
nuts  often  cling  to  the  branches 
when  the  flowers  appear,  afford- 
ing the  only  instance,  probably, 
Fig.  92.  in  the  North,  of  a  shrub  which 
bears  conspicuous  fruit  and  flowers  at  the 
same  time.  The 
nuts  possess  a 
peculiar  interest. 
Through  the  ac- 
tion probably  of  Fig.  93. 
alternate  dryness  and  moisture  they  split 


WITCH-HAZEL.  135 

open  forcibly  and  throw  the  four  black  and 
shining  seeds  to  a  distance  of  fifteen  or 
twenty  feet.  In  this  manner  does  the  plant 
sow  its  seeds.  The  ruptured  pod  is  shown 
at  6,  in  Fig.  93. 

Superstitious  notions  were  long  associated 
with  the  witch-hazel.  Its  common  name  is 
a  record  of  the  foremost  of  these  notions 
combined  with  the  resemblance  of  the  plant 
to  the  true  hazel.  The  branches  were  once 
used  as  "  divining  rods,"  by  means  of  which 
deep  springs  of  pure  water  and  veins  of  pre- 
cious metals  were  supposed  to  be  revealed. 
Even  in  recent  years  I  have  seen  forked 
branches  of  the  peach  and  linden  dexter- 
ously balanced  in  the  hand  and  their  occult 
vibrations  taken  as  infallible  indications  of 
streams  of  pure  water  beneath  the  surface. 
Fortunately  for  the  magicians  who  perform 
with  these  mysterious  branches,  there  are 
few  places  where  any  intelligent  person 
would  look  for  water  that  springs  may  not 
be  found  at  a  reasonable  depth.  Astrology 
was  also  debtor  to  the  witch-hazel  branches, 
if  Token  has  written  aright :  — 

"  Mysterious  plant !  whose  golden  tresses  wave 
With  a  sad  beauty  in  the  dying  year, 
Blooming  amid  November's  frost  severe, 
Like  u  pale  corpse-light  o'er  the  recent  grave. 


136  TALKS  AFIELD. 

If  shepherds  tell  us  true,  thy  wand  hath  power, 
With  gracious  influence,  to  avert  the  harm 
Of  ominous  planets." 

The  witch-hazel  has  been  held  long  in  re- 
pute on  account  of  its  medical  virtues,  and 
it  is  the  source  of  a  popular  remedy  of  the 
present  day.  The  Indians  are  said  to  have 
made  preparations  of  its  bark  for  the  treat- 
ment of  tumors  and  inflammations. 

The  wych-hazel  of  England  is  an  elm, 
whose  wood  was  used  in  olden  times  in  the 
construction  of  wyches  or  chests.  This  an- 
tique spelling  is  often  erroneously  applied  to 
our  American  shrub. 

A  Thistle  Head. 

The  studious  observer  of  nature  is  con- 
stantly impressed  with  the  unlimited  num- 
bers of  curious  little  contrivances  and  pecul- 
iar habits  by  means  of  which  the  commonest 
plants  and  animals  are  prepared  to  overcome 
the  obstacles  which  surround  them,  for  be  it 
known  that  even  plants  have  obstacles  to 
surmount,  if  they  perpetuate  their  species.  A 
plant  must  hold  its  own  against  its  stronger 
and  more  aggressive  neighbors  or  suffer  the 
fate  of  many  of  our  native  plants,  which 
have  been  driven  out  by  Old  World  weeds ; 


A    THISTLE  HEAD.  137 

it  must  possess  some  means  of  scattering  its 
seeds  beyond  the  limits  of  severe  competi- 
tion ;  it  must  struggle  against  uncongenial 
climate  and  the  ruinous  changes  wrought  by 
man ;  and  it  must  elude  or  repel  the  attacks 
of  herbage-loving  and  seed-loving  animals. 
One  who  is  interested  in  the  fascinating  pe- 
culiarities of  common  objects  is  often  pained 
at  the  sneering  estimate  put  upon  them  by 
less  observant  people.  No  one  is  prepared 
to  study  nature  so  long  as  he  regards  any 
phenomenon,  however  slight  in  itself,  as  triv- 
ial and  unworthy  his  regard.  He  must  not 
attempt  to  play  the  critic  with  nature.  He 
must  assume  the  attitude  of  a  patient  learner, 
who  accepts  all  things  as  worthy  his  study 
and  consideration. 

These  thoughts  were  forced  upon  me  by 
the  curious  behavior  of  a  ripe  thistle  head 
which  I  carelessly  picked  in  a  morning  ram- 
ble. The  involucre,  or  "leaves,"  of  this 
thistle  head  was  snugly  closed  about  the 
closely  packed  pappus  -  bearing  seeds.  So 
tightly  were  the  seeds  packed  inside  the  in- 
volucre that  the  long  white  plumes  of  pap- 
pus stood  rigidly  erect.  When  a  seed  was 
removed  from  the  head  the  tension  was  re- 
leased, and  the  pappus  began  to  spread  out, 


138  TALKS  AFIELD. 

as  in  Fig.  94,  a.  So  different  in  appear- 
ance were  these  thistle 
seeds,  with  their  pappus 
all  standing  erect,  from 
those  which  were  float- 
ing in  the  centre  of 
round  balloons  all  over 
the  fields  that  I  could 
scarcely  believe  them  the  same.  How  could 
they  get  out  of  the  tight  thistle  head  ?  I 
carelessly  laid  my  thistle  head  in  a  sunny 
window,  and  soon  forgot  it.  An  hour  later 
I  was  surprised  to  find  that  a  complete  met- 
amorphosis had  taken  place.  The  head  had 
spread  open  in  every  direction,  and  the  seeds 
were  actually  crawling  out  of  it.  A  closer 
observation  at  once  revealed  the  nature  of 
the  movement.  Under  the  influence  of  the 
heat  the  head  had  spread  open ;  then  the 
pappus  on  every  seed  began  to  spread,  more 
rapidly  in  the  centre  of  the  head  where  the 
heat  was  more  directly  concentrated.  The 
spreading  of  the  pappus  plumes  loosened 
the  seeds  and  forced  them  apart  until  some 
of  them  were  quite  out  of  the  head.  But 
the  most  striking  part  of  the  performance 
occurred  after  the  outer  pappus  plumes  on 
each  seed  had  reached  a  horizontal  position. 


WILLOW   TWIGS.  139 

When  they  began  to  bend  downwards  from 
the  horizontal  the  seed  was  lifted  rapidly  out 
of  its  place.  The  movement  of  the  pappus 
was  plainly  visible,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
after  I  had  noticed  the  opening  of  the  head 
the  round  balloons,  with  a  seed,  or  fruit,  in 
the  centre  of  each  (Fig.  94,  6),  were  piled 
in  a  fairy  little  mountain,  ready  to  be  carried 
away  on  the  first  zephyr. 

Willow  Twigs. 

By  the  side  of  a  brook  and  in  sight  from 
my  window  is  a  clump  of  white  willows. 
This  sunny  April  morning,  as  I  strolled  to- 
ward the  brook  to  note  any  signs  of  return- 
ing life  along  its  banks,  I  noticed  that  under- 
neath the  willows  were  lying  numerous  small 
branches  which  had  been  broken  off  squarely 
near  their  bases.  They  were  lying  in  the 
water,  or  very  near  it,  and  knowing  that 
these  trees  have  a  wonderful  propensity  to 
grow  from  cuttings,  I  thought  that  unless 
the  branches  were  removed  we  should  soon 
have  a  tangle  of  young  willows.  I  have 
been  surprised  many  times  at  the  sudden 
snapping  off  of  the  branches  of  certain  wild 
willows  when  I  jostled  them  in  impetuous 
botanical  rambles.  It  is  even  more  surpris- 


140 


TALKS   AFIELD. 


ing  that  these  same  branches  are  sometimes 
tough  enough  for  withes  above  the  one  brit- 
tle spot  near  the  base.  There  must  be  some 
significance  to  this  peculiar  disposition,  and 
I  know  of  none  so  probable  as  that  suggested 
by  Dr.  W.  J.  Beal,  who  thinks  that  in  this 
manner  do  willows  undertake  to  propagate 
themselves.  This  is  certainly  a  beautiful 
provision  :  the  very  enemies  which  browse 
or  break  the  plant  become  active  agents  in 
its  dissemination ! 

A  Talk  About  Roots. 

Figure  95  represents  a 
young  squash  plant  which 
has  been  removed  carefully 
from  the  earth  and  marked 
at  regular  intervals  through- 
out its  whole  length  with 
cross  lines  of  waterproof 
ink.  This  plant  is  again 
set  in  loose,  clean  sand, 
and  in  a  few  days  it  pre- 
sents the  appearance  of 
Fig.  96.  It  will  be  seen 
that  a  peculiar  change  has 
taken  place  besides  the  increase  in  size  of 
the  plant ;  the  lines  upon  the  root  portion 


Fig.  95. 


Fig.  96. 


142  TALKS  AFIELD. 

of  the  plant  are  the  same  distance  apart  as 
before,  but  those  upon  the  stem  portion 
have  separated  to  three  times  their  former 
distance.  In  other  words,  the  root  has 
grown  from  its  extremity  alone,  while  the 
stem  has  elongated  between  its  extremities 
and  has  lifted  the  seed-leaves  into  the  air. 
We  have  discovered  a  fundamental  differ- 
ence between  the  root  and  the  stem.  The 
root  is  ever  increasing  by  additions  to  its 
young  extremity,  crawling  by  this  means 
around  stones  and  whatever  obstacles  lie  in 
its  way,  or  taking  the  direction  of  attractive 
food  supplies.  The  stem,  on  the  other  hand, 
meets  few  obstacles  to  its  continuous  growth, 
and  each  internode,  or  the  space  from  joint 
to  joint,  increases  more  or  less  throughout 
its  whole  length.  It  must  not  be  under- 
stood, however,  that  there  is  no  limit  to 
this  stretching  of  the  internode,  for  it  very 
soon  ceases,  and  the  upper  node  or  joint  be- 
comes stationary.  Then  the  younger  and 
succeeding  internodes  stretch  until  they  in 
turn  become  stationary ;  so  it  happens  that 
there  may  be  several  internodes,  one  above 
the  other,  elongating  at  the  same  time,  the 
lower  and  older  ones  perhaps  slowly,  the 
upper  ones  rapidly.  The  length  to  which 


ROOT  AND   STEM.  143 

each  internode  grows  will  depend  upon  the 
habit  of  the  plant  and  upon  incidental  cir- 
cumstances. Some  plants  habitually  pro- 
duce longer  internodes  than  others.  Inci- 
dental circumstances  appear  to  be  more 
closely  associated  with  the  length  of  the  in- 
ternode, however.  An  apple-tree  which  is 
neglected  may  produce  internodes  one  or 
two  inches  long,  while  another  tree  which 
receives  good  culture  may  grow  them  two 
feet  long.  The  leaf-bud  which  is  formed  in 
the  fall  contains  the  rudiments  of  a  complete 
branch  which  is  to  grow  the  next  summer  ; 
there  are  just  as  many  nodes  or  joints  in 
that  minute  bud-branch  as  there  will  be  in 
the  future  twig,  but  the  length  to  which  the 
twig  will  grow  between  these  joints  will  be 
determined  by  the  character  of  the  season 
and  the  thrift  of  the  plant.  The  root  has 
no  nodes  or  joints ;  it  goes  on  in  its  peculiar 
searching  manner,  branching  and  rebranch- 
ing with  little  or  no  regularity. 

There  is  another  still  more  apparent  dif- 
ference between  the  root  and  the  stem :  the 
root  descends  into  earth  and  darkness,  but 
the  stem  rises  into  air  and  sunlight.  But 
why  should  there  be  this  opposite  habit  in 
parts  so  closely  associated  ?  There  is  noth- 


144  TALKS  AFIELD. 

ing  in  the  structure  of  stem  or  root,  so  far 
as  we  know,  which  would  cause  either  of 
them  to  take  a  special  direction.  To  be 
sure,  the  roots  seek  the  earth  to  secure  food 
for  the  plant,  but  that  fact  does  not  explain 
how  they  are  enabled  to  practice  such  dis- 
crimination. It  may  be  that  gravitation  has 
something  to  do  with  this  downward  ten- 
dency of  the  root,  as  many  botanists  have 
supposed,  although  it  is  difficult  to  see  why 
the  stem  should  not  be  similarly  influenced  ; 
and,  moreover,  it  sometimes  happens  that 
roots  grow  upwards  in  search  of  food.  Af- 
ter all  that  has  been  said  and  done  about 
the  reasons  for  the  downward  direction  of 
roots,  we  are  forced  to  say  that  we  do  not 
know  what  makes  them  enter  the  earth,  any 
more  than  we  know  what  makes  some  seeds 
germinate  slowly  and  others  rapidly;  we 
can  do  no  more  than  to  adopt  a  name  which 
has  been  given  to  the  phenomenon  by  bota- 
nists. This  name  is  Geotropism,  from  the 
Greek  for  earth  and  to  turn. 

Another  distinction  between  stem  and 
root  is  the  absence  from  roots  of  all  forms  of 
leaves  and  buds.  This  distinction  will  ena- 
ble us  to  distinguish  between  true  roots  and 
certain  underground  stems  which  are  root- 


SUBTERRANEAN  STEMS.  145 

like  in  character.  The  buds,  or  "eyes," 
upon  the  potato,  as  well  as  its  mode  of 
growth,  prove  it  to  be  a  subterranean  stem. 
So  also  are  the  underground  runners  of 
quack  or  quitch  grass,  Canada  thistles,  and 
other  pests.  If  we  look  into  the  more  mi- 
nute life  histories  of  these  underground 
steins,  we  find  additional  and  even  more  de- 
cisive proofs  that  they  are  in  no  sense  roots ; 
we  find  that  they  do  not  imbibe  nourishment 
for  the  support  of  the  plant,  but  are  simply 
means  for  propagating  it.  It  is  at  once  ap- 
parent that  the  underground  stems  of  the 
quack  grass  and  the  thistle  naturally  serve 
as  very  active  agents  in  plant  propagation, 
and  a  moment's  reflection  will  reveal  the 
same  fact  in  regard  to  the  potato,  which  is 
native  to  countries  where  frost  does  not  de- 
stroy the  tubers.  Plants  which  possess  un- 
derground runners,  and  which  also  bear 
seeds,  are  doubly  prepared,  other  things  be- 
ing equal,  to  overcome  obstacles  of  environ- 
ment. Another  class  of  underground  stems 
are  those  which  become  thick  and  more  or 
less  woody,  and  which  are  best  illustrated 
in  strong  perennial  herbs.  The  heavy  rhi- 
zomes —  for  so  are  subterranean  stems  called 
—  of  rhubarb,  May-apple,  and  blue-flag  are 
10 


146  TALKS  AFIELD. 

familiar.  These  stout  rhizomes  do  not  often 
serve  as  extensive  natural  propagators,  al- 
though most  of  them  die  away  at  one  end 
and  grow  at  a  corresponding  rate  at  the 
other  end.  At  the  newly  formed  extremity 
they  send  up  a  new  stalk,  an  operation 
which  is  repeated  every  year,  while  the  older 
stalks  die,  thus  forcing  the  whole  plant 
slowly  along.  Any  of  these  underground 
stems  are  capable  of  emitting  roots.  There 
are  many  roots  which  are  very  similar  to 
these  rhizomes  and  to  subterranean  stem- 
tubers.  The  sweet  potato  is  a  true  root,  and 
while  it  does  not  possess  buds,  it  has  the 
power  of  forming  them  when  necessary.  It 
is  worth  remembering  that  in  eating  Irish 
potatoes  we  eat  a  thickened  stem,  but  in  eat- 
ing sweet  potatoes  we  eat  a  thickened  root ; 
and  that  when  we  plant  pieces  of  the  tubers 
of  Irish  potatoes  we  are  planting  buds,  but 
when  we  plant  similar  pieces  of  sweet  pota- 
toes we  are  planting  smooth  sections  of  a 
root  which  will  soon  give  rise  to  buds.  The 
tubers  of  dahlias  are  true  roots  ;  so  also  are 
beets,  carrots,  parsnips,  radishes,  and  tur- 
nips, but  in  these  cases  a  portion  of  the  stem 
is  also  thickened,  so  that  the  top  of  the  beet 
or  the  turnip  is  true  stem.  All  thickened 


SUBTERRANEAN  STEMS.  147 

roots  and  thickened  rhizomes  are  reservoirs 
of  food  supplies  for  the  plant,  and  these  res- 
ervoirs are  drawn  upon  when  the  plant  has 
need.  Compare  the  thick;  plump  tubers  or 
roots  of  dahlias,  potatoes,  and  turnips  as 
they  appear  in  the  fall,  with  the  shriveled 
remains  of  these  tubers  after  they  have  been 
planted  and  pumped  dry  by  the  growing 
young  plants  ;  then  imagine  these  plants  in 
a  warmer  climate  where  long,  dry  seasons 
must  be  endured,  and  you  can  appreciate 
the  importance  to  the  plant  of  such  infalli- 
ble storehouses. 

The  primary  office  of  roots  is  to  supply 
nourishment  to  the  plant.  They  always  de- 
mand that  this  nourishment  be  dissolved  in 
water.  The  liquid  food  is  taken  into  the 
thin-walled  outer  cells  of  the  young  rootlets 
by  a  sort  of  imbibition  process,  and  it  is 
passed  by  a  similar  process  from  cell  to  cell. 
If  we  were  to  remove  very  care- 
fully from  the  soil  a  young  plant 
of  Indian  corn,  or  indeed  any 
young  plant,  and  wash  it,  we 
should  observe  a  delicate  cover- 
ing like  mould  upon  the  young 
roots.  This  covering  is  made  up 
of  many  minute  white  hair -like 


148  TALKS   AFIELD. 

called  root-hairs,  (#,  Fig.  97.)  These  root- 
hairs  are  prolongations  of  the  root  cells,  as 
shown,  much  enlarged,  at  6,  Fig.  97.  They 
are  the  most  active  agents  in  the  absorption 
of  food,  and  upon  thrifty  plants  they  are  al- 
ways very  numerous.  The  tearing  off  of 
these  root-hairs  is  one  reason  why  plants 
suffer  so  much  from  careless  removing  and 
transplanting. 

As  fast  as  the  roots  become  stiff  and  hard 
the  root-hairs  die,  and  those  portions  of  the 
roots  no  longer  gather  food  for  the  plant ; 
they  become  constantly  more  rigid,  and  after 
a  time  partake  more  or  less  of  the  nature 
of  the  stem  from  which  they  grow.  They 
now  perform  the  second  office  of  roots,  that 
of  hold-fasts  or  anchors  to  keep  the  growing 
plant  in  position  against  wind  and  frost. 
As  roots  have  fewer  offices  to  perform  than 
stems,  and  as  their  environments  are  less 
diverse,  they  do  not  generally  vary  widely 
one  from  another  in  different  species  of 
plants.  They  are  much  simpler  in  structure 
than  steins,  and  it  is  only  when  they  are  old 
that  they  begin  to  take  on  many  of  the 
features  of  the  stem  to  which  they  belong. 
Young  roots,  whether  of  endogeiis  or  exogens, 
agree  in  possessing  an  endogenous  structure ; 


ROOTS.  149 

that  is,  they  are  inside  growers,  the  same  as 
palms  and  corn. 

The  first  root  of  any  plant  is  developed 
from  the  lower  extremity  of  the  minute  stem- 
let  which  lies  between  or  below  the  seed- 
leaves  in  the  seed.  It  was  once  supposed 
that  this  sternlet  is  a  true  root  in  minia- 
ture, and  it  has  consequently  been  called  the 
radicle  (Latin,  radix,  root).  It  is  now 
known,  however,  that  this  little  organ  is 
true  stem,  and  of  late  it  has  been  called  the 
caulicle  (Latin,  caulis,  stem).  This  caulicle 
is  shown  in  Fig.  1.  From  the  caulicle  the 
root  arises  when  the  seed  germinates.  Other 
roots  soon  arise  from  this  first  root,  and 
these  branches  again  branch  and  rebranch 
indefinitely.  But  roots  may  arise  from 
stems  or  even  from  leaves  as  well  as  from 
other  roots.  Wherever  a  runner  or  decum- 
bent branch  comes  in  constant  contact  with 
the  ground  roots  are  apt  to  form.  Upon 
this  fact  depends  the  practice  of  layering 
adopted  by  nurserymen.  Roots  are  also 
produced  from  the  nodes  in  cuttings  of  vari- 
ous plants ;  and  the  florist  knows  how  to 
make  a  score  of  fan-shaped  pieces  of  a  be- 
gonia leaf  strike  roots  from  their  lower  ends. 
It  is  a  significant  illustration  of  the  adapta- 


150  TALKS   AFIELD. 

bility  of  any  part  of  a  plant  to  circum- 
stances, and  as  well  also  of  the  individuality 
of  these  parts,  that  rootless  stem-cuttings  at 
once  emit  roots  and  stemless  root-cuttings 
often  emit  stems.  The  "  suckers  "  that  arise 
from  the  severed  roots  of  apple  and  pear- 
trees  and  the  successful  propagation  of  black- 
berries and  other  plants  from  pieces  of  roots 
are  familiar  examples  of  entirely  stemless 
and  budless  roots  that  give  rise  to  stems. 
Occasionally  roots  arise  from  the  exposed 
surfaces  of  stems,  as  in  the  climbing  poison 
ivy ;  and  here  we  find  a  third  office  of  roots, 
for  they  are  essential  aids  to  the  climbing. 
Indian  corn  emits  peculiar  aerial  roots  from 
its  lower  nodes,  and  in  a  similar  manner  do 
many  palms  and  other  tropical  plants. 
These  roots  enter  the  ground  and  serve 
both  as  feeders  and  hold-fasts.  In  warm 
countries  many  plants  subsist  entirely  upon 
food  which  is  gathered  from  the  air  by  aerial 
roots.  These  are  the  air-plants,  great  num- 
bers of  which  are  members  of  the  peculiar 
orchid  family.  One  of  these  is  the  vanilla 
plant,  which  clambers  over  trees  and  drops 
its  long,  cord-like  roots  into  the  humid  air. 
The  familiar  long-moss  which  decorates  the 
forests  of  our  Southern  States  has  the  most 


PAPASITES.  151 

northern  range  of  any  of  our  air-plants. 
Another  interesting  and  still  more  peculiar 
class  of  roots  are  those  of  parasites,  plants 
which  steal  their  food  directly  from  other 
plants.  Many  of  our  common  flowering- 
plants  are  either  wholly  or  in  part  parasitic. 
The  wild  gerardias  and  some  related  plants 
attach  some  of  their  roots  to  the  roots  of 
other  plants  and  thus  obtain  a  part  of  their 
nutriment,  but  otherwise  these  plants  are  not 
peculiar  and  their  fair  exteriors  give  no  hint 
of  the  robbery  that  is  hidden  beneath  the 
surface.  Other  kinds  of  plants,  however, 
make  an  open  profession  of  their  guilt,  for 
their  white  and 
blanched  colors 
testify  that  all 
their  food  is  sto- 
len ready  made,  Fig 
and  they  need  no  leaf -green  with  which  to 
elaborate  crude  materials.  Such  plants  are 
the  Indian-pipes  and  beech-drops.  The  roots 
of  parasites  are  usually  broadened  and  sucker- 
like  where  they  attack  some  other  root,  as  is 
shown  in  Fig.  98. 


152  TALKS   AFIELD. 

T/ie  Importance  of  Seeing   Correctly. 

Three  professional  fruit-growers  expressed 
an  opinion  concerning  the  manner  in  which 
sweet  cherries  are  borne  on  the  tree.  The 
first  contended  that  the  fruit  grows  from 
side  spurs  on  twigs  which  grew  last  fall. 
The  second  was  equally  positive  that  it  is 
borne  on  short  spurs  which  grow  from  the 
point  of  junction  between  last  year's  wood 
and  the  wood  of  the  year  previous.  The 
third  supposed  that  cherries  grow  in  pairs 
from  most  of  the  buds  on  both  last  year's 
and  two  years  old  wood.  Each  of  these  men 
had  grown  cherries  for  at  least  a  dozen  years, 
and  yet  neither  of  them  knew  this  one  of  the 
simplest  facts  connected  with  their  daily  la- 
bor, and  which  might  be  made  apparent  by  a 
few  minutes'  close  observation.  It  is  surpris- 
ing that  many  of  the  commonest  and  most 
interesting  of  e very-day  phenomena,  though 
they  lie  right  before  the  eyes  of  every  man, 
are  never  seen  by  the  great  majority  of  peo- 
ple. Most  persons  are  walking  through  a 
wonderland  with  their  eyes  shut.  The  inter- 
esting things  detailed  in  these  pages  are  but 
a  very  few  random  leaves  rudely  torn  from 
the  book  of  nature.  The  leaves  that  remain 


HASTY  CONCLUSIONS.  153 

are  fully  as  inviting,  and  they  are  doubly 
profitable  when  Nature  herself  tells  the  story. 
One  needs  practice,  along*  with  scientific 
training,  to  interpret  aright  all  the  things 
that  he  may  see.  A  farmer  of  my  acquaint- 
ance noticed  that  grasshoppers  appear  shortly 
after  the  stems  of  golden-rods  become  af- 
fected with  peculiar  frothy  swellings,  and 
he  at  once  asserted  that  the  grasshoppers 
bred  in  the  golden-rods  !  If  he  had  carefully 
cut  open  these  swellings  he  could  have  found 
proof  enough  against  his  assertion.  Another 
friend  noticed  that  the  long-stalked  and 
therefore  conspicuous  flowers  of  his  pump- 
kins had  all  died  :  he  immediately  proclaimed 
to  his  neighbors  that  his  pumpkins  were 
blasted,  and  that  the  entire  crop  in  that  vi- 
cinity would  be  small !  Had  he  known  that 
these  flowers  were  staminate,  and  that  when 
they  had  shed  their  pollen  their  mission  was 
ended,  he  should  have  had  greater  wonder  if 
they  had  not  died.  Still  another  friend  dis- 
covered a  minute  insect  boring  into  a  pear- 
tree,  and  as  that  tree  happened  to  be  blighted 
he  announced  that  a  certain  insect  was  the 
cause  of  pear  blight ;  nevertheless,  a  score 
of  other  trees  which  had  the  blight  would 
probably  show  no  sign  of  the  ominous  in- 


154  TALKS  AFIELD. 

sect.  It  is  never  safe  to  draw  conclusions 
hastily,  and  especially  not  from  one  or  two 
detached  observations.  I  will  relate  a  very 
sober  incident,  of  which  an  account  was 
published  a  short  time  since  in  an  agricultu- 
ral paper,  and  I  request  that  my  readers 
bear  it  in  mind  as  an  antidote  against  hasty 
conclusions.  An  observing  fruit-grower  pos- 
sessed a  plat  of  smooth-fruited  gooseberries. 
A  favorite  family  cat,  having  unceremoni- 
ously died,  was  buried  underneath  one  of 
the  gooseberry  bushes,  and  behold !  the  next 
year  that  bush  bore  hairy  berries,  and  has 
so  continued  to  do  unto  the  present  day ! 

But  beside  a  remedy  for  indifferent  habits 
and  these  aids  to  mental  perception  and 
logical  reasoning,  one  needs  some  purely 
physical  apparatus  to  enlarge  his  eyesight. 
This  apparatus  is  the  microscope.  I  do  not 
speak  of  the  com- 
pound microscope, 
which  is  much  too 
complex  an  instru- 
ment to  place  in  the 
hands  of  a 
novice,  but 
Fig-  "  rather  of  the 

simple  lens  or  hand  glass.     A  handy  pocket 


LENSES.  165 

lens  is  one  that  shuts  up  in  a  tortoise-shell 
or  german-silver  case,  like  Fig.  99,  and 
which  may  be  purchased  for  two  or  three 
dollars.  Such  a  little  lens  will  magnify 
enough  for  purposes  of  common  out-door  ob- 
servation. A  stand  may  be  made  for  it  by 
fastening  a  wire  two  inches  long  vertically 
into  a  block,  and  then  sliding  the  lens  down 


Fig.  100. 

upon  the  wire  by  means  of  the  hole  in  the 
handle.  Then  if  a  couple  of  needles  be 
stuck  in  sticks,  as  represented  in  the  lower 
portion  of  Fig.  99,  and  used  as  priers  and 
forceps,  both  hands  may  be  employed  in 
picking  a  flower  or  bud  to  pieces,  while  the 
eye  watches  the  whole  operation  through  the 
microscope.  An  excellent  lens  for  examin- 
ing rather  large  objects  and  for  studying 
plants  without  dissecting  them  is  a  reading- 
glass  two  or  three  inches  in  diameter,  as 
shown  in  Fig.  100. 


156  TALKS  AFIELD. 

How  Plants  are  Named. 
It  is  a  popular  notion  that  when  a  bota- 
nist finds  a  new  plant  he  at  once  recognizes 
it  as  new  and  immediately  gives  it  any  name 
which  may  please  his  fancy.  To  the  non- 
botanist  it  appears  one  of  the  easiest  of  mat- 
ters to  define  and  name  a  new  plant,  while 
in  fact  it  requires  a  broad  knowledge,  an  ex- 
treme accuracy  of  expression,  and  an  uncom- 
mon acumen.  What  is  a  new  plant?  The 
botanist,  with  a  manual  in  hand  of  all  the 
plants  known  to  occur  in  his  region,  finds  a 
plant  which  does  not  agree  with  any  of  the 
descriptions  in  the  book.  He  at  once  recog- 
nizes the  plant  as  a  violet,  for  instance,  but 
he  finds  no  name  for  it.  The  first  thought 
comes,  May  this  not  be  an  abnormal  form  or 
a  peculiar  variety  of  some  old  species?  May 
there  not  be  intermediate  forms  all  the  way 
between  this  plant  and  the  bird's-foot  violet, 
which  it  much  resembles?  And  who  is  to 
decide  the  limits  of  the  species  ?  Who  is 
able  to  pronounce  whether  the  new  plant  is 
entitled  to  a  full  specific  rank,  or  whether 
it  is  a  mere  variety,  a  form  ?  "  Species  are 
judgments,"  says  our  great  botanist,  and  nec- 
essarily he  who  has  the  best  judgment,  who 


HO  W  PLANTS  ARE  NAMED.  157 

has  had  the  best  training  and  the  longest 
experience,  is  the  best  fitted  to  make  such 
judgments.  He  knows  that  violets  which 
are  widely  different  in  general  appearance 
may  be  only  extreme  forms  of  one  species. 
If  the  difference  lies  in  the  color,  he  gives 
it  little  attention,  for  he  knows  that  color 
varies  in  all  plants.  If  the  difference  lies  in 
the  shapes  of  the  leaves,  he  gives  it  more  at- 
tention, still  does  not  rely  upon  it,  unless  the 
leaves  are  wholly  and  essentially  unlike  be- 
tween the  one  and  the  other.  Here  again  it 
is  a  matter  of  judgment  as  to  what  consti- 
tutes this  essential  difference.  The  common 
hooded  violet  ordinarily  has  large  heart- 
shaped  leaves,  still  they  occasionally  vary  so 
as  to  resemble  the  much-cut  leaves  of  the 
bird's-foot  violet.  A  difference  in  the  shapes 
of  the  parts  of  the  flower  is  of  more  conse- 
quence. The  general  habit  and  appearance 
of  the  plant  are  important.  If,  after  consid- 
erable thought  and  study,  the  botanist  satis- 
fies himself  that  the  violet  is  a  new  species 
to  his  region,  that  it  is  not  a  form  of  any  of 
the  species  described  in  his  botany,  then  his 
trouble  has  just  begun.  It  is  not  enough 
that  the  plant  be  new  to  his  region :  it  is  not 
new  if  there  is  another  violet  like  it  in  the 


158  TALKS  AFIELD. 

world!  He  must  now  cultivate  a  critical  ac- 
quaintance with  the  violets  of  all  countries, 
and  with  them  he  must  compare  his  plant. 
He  will  look  especially  towards  the  violets 
of  certain  countries,  knowing  that  the  flora 
of  his  region  resembles  some  foreign  floras 
more  than  others.  If  he  lives  in  the  North- 
ern United  States,  he  will  look  especially  at 
Arctic  American  or  Northern  European  or 
Eastern  Asian  species.  Having  satisfied  him- 
self that  the  violet  has  never  been  named  in 
any  country,  he  must  next  describe  it.  This 
is  a  difficult  task.  He  must  be  able  to  seize 
upon  the  permanent  features  of  the  plant 
and  to  describe  them  in  a  concise  and  accu- 
rate manner  :  he  must  describe  the  plant  so 
accurately  as  to  distinguish  it  unmistakably 
from  all  other  violets.  Next  comes  the 
naming  of  the  plant,  which  is  a  compara- 
tively easy  matter.  The  first  name  will  be 
Viola,  the  generic  name  of  the  violets.  The 
second  or  specific  name  must  be  one  which 
is  not  applied  to  any  other  violet.  It  could 
not  be  called  Viola  blanda,  "  sweet  violet," 
because  Willdenow  ]ong  ago  used  that  name  ; 
neither  could  it  be  called  Viola  rotundif olia, 
"  round-leaved  violet,"  as  Michaux  has  used 
the  name.  The  specific  name  must  agree 


110  \V  PLANTS  ARE  NAMED.  159 

with  the  generic  name,  Viola,  in  gender,  and 
it  must  be  Latin  or  Latinized.  A  proper 
name  decided  upon,  as  perhaps  Viola  verna, 
"  spring  violet,"  the  botanist  publishes  it 
with  the  scientific  description  of  the  plant, 
and  thereafter  the  name  is  written  with  the 
author's  name  attached,  to  show  who  pub- 
lished the  species.  Thus  we  write,  Viola 
blanda,  Willd.,  and  V.  rotundifolia,  Michx., 
the  names  of  the  authors  being  abbrevi- 
ated. 

This  binomial,  " two-name"  system  of 
naming  natural  objects  is  an  exceedingly 
beautiful  and  convenient  one.  The  names 
of  the  nearly  8,000  genera  of  flowering  plants 
must  all  be  different  from  each  other,  but 
the  same  specific  name  may  be  used  over  and 
over  again,  only  changing  it  in  each  case  to 
suit  the  gender  of  the  generic  name.  Thus 
we  might  use  the  word  verna,  meaning 
spring,  for  a  plant  in  each  of  the  8,000  gen- 
era. There  could  be  a  spring  violet,  a  spring- 
rose,  a  spring  chrysanthemum,  or  a  spring 
bramble,  —  Viola  verna,  Rosa  verna,  Chrys- 
anthemum vernum,  Rubus  vernus.  One 
hundred  thousand  species  of  flowering  plants 
are  easily  and  readily  named  by  this  method, 
and  their  names  can  be  borne  in  the  mem- 


160  TALKS  AFIELD. 

ory.  The  names  of  varieties  are  made  after 
the  same  pattern  as  the  names  of  species  : 
Viola  cucullata  var.  palmata  represents  a 
palmate-leaved  variety  of  our  common  hooded 
violet. 

A  Chapter  on  Plant  Names. 

There  are  other  associations  than  those 
of  verdant  fields  and  woods  and  fragrant 
flowers  connected  with  the  names  of  plants : 
there  are  attractive  bits  of  history,  interest- 
ing reminiscences,  or  curious  tangles  of  ety- 
mology. Many  of  the  scientific  names  of 
plants  can  be  traced  back  to  the  earliest  pe- 
riods of  history,  from  whence  they  have  de- 
scended through  the  centuries  by  irregular 
paths,  now  applied  to  one  object,  now  to 
another,  now  receiving  some  impression  of 
popular  notions  or  superstitions,  at  times 
lost  sight  of  altogether,  and  as  often  resur- 
rected in  a  new  guise,  perhaps,  until  finally 
they  have  been  rescued  by  the  modern  scien- 
tist and  stereotyped  in  ponderous  Latin. 
The  common  names  of  plants  have  for  the 
most  part  even  more  intricate  histories,  for 
they  have  been  indelibly  associated  with  the 
every-day  speech  of  the  common  people. 
Their  origin  is  often  lost  in  the  mists  of  an- 


HISTORY   IN  NAMES.  161 

tiquity.  The  common  names  of  many  culti- 
vated plants  are  very  similar  in  widely  dif- 
ferent languages,  and  these  similarities  are 
proofs  that  the  plants  have  migrated  from 
one  people  to  another,  carrying  with  them  the 
old  names,  which  have  become  modified  to 
suit  the  genius  of  the  foster  tongue.  We 
can  sometimes  trace  these  common  names, 
as  spoken  by  different  peoples,  back  to  one 
common  origin,  which  must  be  coincident 
with  the  origin  of  the  plant  itself.  In  this 
manner  we  can  trace  the  word  apple,  and 
its  equivalents  in  modern  languages,  to  an 
Asiatic  origin,  and  we  are  justified  in  saying 
that  the  apple  was  native  to  that  Asiatic  re- 
gion, and  that  it  was  carried  to  the  westward 
by  the  early  migrations  of  men. 

An  apt  illustration  of  this  growth  of 
names  is  found  in  the  specific  name  of  the 
common  garden  carnation,  Dianthus  Cary- 
ophyllus,  and  in  the  name  of  the  Pink  fam- 
ily, CaryophyllaceaB,  to  which  it  belongs. 
Among  the  Greeks  the  clove  was  known  as 
caryophyllum  or  caryophyllus,  literally  "  nut- 
leaf,"  probably  in  allusion  to  the  bud-like 
or  nut-like  form  of  the  spice.  When  the 
carnation  began  to  be  cultivated  it  was 
found  to  possess  so  strongly  the  odor  of 
11 


162  TALKS  AFIELD. 

cloves  that  it  was  used  as  a  substitute  for 
them  in  the  seasoning  of  wines,  and  it  soon 
came  to  be  called  caiyophyllus.  The  name 
was  not  lost  to  the  clove,  however,  for  the 
clove-tree  is  now  known  to  botanists  as  the 
aromatic  caryophyllus  (Caryophyllus  aro- 
matica).  Other  plants  closely  related  to 
the  carnation  began,  in  time,  to  be  associated 
with  the  name  caryophyllus,  and  when  the 
pink-like  plants  were  arranged  into  one 
group,  that  group  was  designated  the  Caryo- 
phyllaceae.  The  true  pinks  themselves  were 
dedicated  to  Jupiter,  hence  the  genus  was 
called  Dianthus,  "  Jupiter's  flowers."  Lin- 
naeus indicated  the  history  of  the  carnation 
by  naming  it  Dianthus  Caryophyllus.  But 
the  name  caryophyllus  has  not  stopped  here. 
In  common  writing  it  became  corrupted,  and 
in  mediaeval  Latin  it  was  called  garqff'olum 
or  gariqftlum.  The  French  changed  it  into 
giroflee,  from  which  were  made  the  Old 
English  words  gyllofer  and  gilofre,  each 
with  a  long  o.  The  word  subsequently  de- 
veloped into  gilliflower.  Thus  far  these 
names  appear  to  have  been  applied  to  our 
carnation  pink,  but  after  a  time  a  new  diffi- 
culty arose.  Certain  members  of  the  mus- 
tard family,  in  the  double  forms  of  their 


CURIOUS  HISTORIES.  163 

flowers,  bear  a  close  resemblance  to  some  of 
the  carnations,  and  the  name  gilliflower  was 
often  transferred  to  them.  To  distinguish 
the  one  from  the  other  the  term  clove-gilli- 
flower  was  often  applied  to  the  carnation, 
and  stock-gilliflower,  "  woody-stemmed  gilli- 
flower," was  applied  to  the  mustard-like 
plant.  The  name  carnation  or  coronation, 
derived  from  the  old  custom  of  making  chap- 
lets  or  cor  once  from  these  and  similar  flow- 
ers, came  into  use  for  the  clove-pink  and  it 
ceased  to  be  called  gilliflower.  Finally,  the 
name  has  been  dropped  from  the  mustard- 
like  plant  also,  leaving  us  but  a  remnant, 
stocks,  for  these  well-known  plants  of  the 
flower  garden,  the  ten-weeks'  stocks  and  sim- 
ilar varieties. 

An  equally  interesting  history  is  connected 
with  the  common  purslane  or  "  pusley,"  a 
weed  so  unattractive  and  so  pernicious  in 
its  character  as  to  be  commonly  deemed  en- 
tirely unworthy  a  history.  In  this  case,  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Prior  in  his  invaluable  "  Pop- 
ular Names  of  British  Plants,"  the  proper 
Latin  name  of  the  plant  early  became  con- 
founded with  a  very  different  name  which 
was  popular  in  the  Middle  Ages.  A  beau- 
tiful translucent  sea-shell  was  known  as 


164  TALKS   AFIELD. 

porcellana.  When  Marco  Polo  returned 
from  -his  wonderful  travels  to  the  far  East 
near  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  he 
could  find  no  name  so  appropriate  for  the 
beautiful  pottery  which  he  had  found  in 
China  as  porcellana,  the  sea-shell.  The 
word  became  familiar  as  Marco  Polo's  ad- 
ventures became  widely  known,  and  we  still 
know  this  fine  pottery  as  porcelain.  It  is 
probable  that  the  plant  portulaca,  or  purs- 
lane, was  then  cultivated  as  a  salad  plant,  as 
it  is  to  day  by  the  French.  The  plant  was 
surely  familiar,  while  its  Latin  name  was 
probably  less  so,  for  this  name  became  con- 
founded with  the  like-sounding  porcellana 
which  finally  descended  to  the  plant:  the  in- 
significant waif  of  the  gardens  became  indel- 
ibly associated  with  the  sea-shell  and  the 
beautiful  dishes ! 

The  name  huckleberry,  which  is  applied  in- 
discriminately at  the  West  to  several  species 
of  Vaccinium  and  Gaylussacia,  is  evidently 
a  corruption  of  whortleberry.  Whortleberry 
is  in  turn  a  corruption  of  myrtleberry.  In 
the  Middle  Ages  the  true  myrtleberry  was 
largely  used  in  cookery  and  medicine,  but 
the  European  bilberry  or  vaccinium  so 
closely  resembled  it  that  the  name  was  trans- 


CURIOUS   HISTORIES.  165 

ferred  to  the  latter  plant,  a  circumstance 
commemorated  by  Linna3us  in  the  giving  of 
the  name  Vaccinium  Myrtillus  to  the  bil- 
berry. From  the  European  whortleberry 
the  name  was  transferred  to  the  similar 
American  plants. 

The  showy  corn-cockle,  which  has  to  be 
pulled  from  nearly  every  wheat-field  in  the 
country,  and  which  most  farmer  boys  asso- 
ciate with  back-aches,  is  connected  with  quite 
as  complex  a  history  as  is  the  carnation  or 
purslane.  Botanists  are  now  agreed  in  call- 
ing this  plant  Lychnis  Githago,  but  it  was 
formerly  known  as  Agrostemma  Githago. 
An  outline  of  the  history  of  its  botanical 
and  popular  names  may  be  given  as  follows : 
The  pungent  seeds  of  the  nutmeg-flower  or 
fennel-flower  (Nigella  sativa)  of  old  gardens 
are  employed  by  the  Egyptians  and  other 
Oriental  peoples  as  condiments  and  as  medi- 
cines. These  seeds  were  at  one  time  con- 
sidered acceptable  substitutes  for  pepper, 
and  they  have  always  been  associated  with 
such  aromatic-pungent  seeds  as  caraway  and 
dill.  This  plant  is  probably  the  fitches  of 
which  Isaiah  gave  the  manner  of  sowing  and 
reaping :  "  When  he  hath  made  plain  the 
face  thereof  [the  ground],  doth  he  not  cast 


166  TALKS  AFIELD. 

abroad  the  fitches  and  scatter  the  cummin, 
and  cast  in  the  principal  wheat,  and  the  ap- 
pointed barley,  and  the  rye  in  their  place  ? 
.  .  .  The  fitches  are  not  threshed  with  a 
threshing  instrument,  neither  is  a  cart-wheel 
turned  about  upon  the  cummin,  but  the 
fitches  are  beaten  out  with  a  staff  and  the 
cumrnin  with  a  rod."  The  cummin  here 
mentioned  is  another  of  the  aromatic,  cara- 
way-like products  of  the  parsley  family. 
The  nutmeg-flower,  now  rarely  seen  in  gar- 
dens, is  akin  to  the  common  Damascus  ni- 
gella  or  mist-flower,  a  plant  known  to  roman- 
tic minds  as  love-in-the-mist.  To  the  Lat- 
ins the  nigella  or  nutmeg-flower  was  known 
as  gith  or  git.  There  appears  to  have  been 
a  time  some  three  hundred  and  more  years 
since  when  the  curious  in  history  and  science 
were  uncertain  to  what  plant  the  name  gith 
was  applied.  Its  seeds  were  no  doubt 
brought  into  Western  Europe  at  that  time, 
and  so  closely  do  they  resemble  those  of  the 
cockle  that  this  latter  plant  assumed  the 
name  of  the  gith.  The  black  seeds  of  the 
true  gith  gave  it  in  Greek  the  more  clas- 
sic names  melanospermon  and  melanthion. 
When  the  cockle  was  found  to  be  a  much 
different  plant  from  the  gith,  it  received  two 


CURIOUS  HISTORIES.  167 

new  names,  each  meant  to  record  the  gith- 
like  character  of  its  seeds,  —  one  gith-ago, 
the  other  pseudo-melanthion.  When  Lin- 
naeus, in  the  middle  of  the  last  century, 
brought  order  out  of  the  confusion  of  the 
names  of  animals  and  plants,  he  found  no 
less  a  name  for  the  brilliant  cockle  than  the 
poetic  Agrostemma,  "  crown  of  the  fields !  " 
To  complete  the  name  he  added  the  popular 
though  historic  githago,  making  the  Agros- 
temma Githago  of  botanies.  The  genus 
Agrostemma  is  now  included  in  the  genus 
Lychnis,  —  Lychnis  is  a  Greek  word  for  a 
light  or  lamp,  —  and  our  plant  now  carries 
the  less  pretentious  name,  Lychnis  Githago. 
Perhaps  the  common  name,  cockle,  also  re- 
cords an  allusion  to  the  aromatic  seeds  of 
the  gith.  It  is  pretty  clearly  derived,  though 
indirectly,  perhaps,  from  the  Latin  caucalis, 
a  name  which  was  early  applied  to  some 
caraway-like  plant  with  which  the  gith  was 
probably  associated.  The  name  cockle  may 
have  been  applied  first  to  the  gith  and  after- 
wards to  the  plant  we  now  know  as  cockle. 
Old  English  writers,  however,  used  the  word 
for  weeds  in  general,  but  no  doubt  always 
with  a  special  reference  to  the  wheat-field 
pest.  It  is  supposed  that  the  word  was  used 


168  TALKS  AFIELD. 

to  designate    this  plant  when   Shakespeare 
made    Biron  exclaim,  in  "  Love's  Labor 's 

Lost,"- 

44 Aliens!  allons!  sow'd  cockle  reap'd  no  corn." 


INDEX. 


AGABICUS,  13. 

Bud,  leaf,  143. 

Agrostemma  Githago,  165. 

Bud  on  potatoes,  145. 

Air  plants,  150. 

Burdock,  64. 

Air  spaces,  72. 

Buttercups,  51. 

Alder,  100. 

Algae,  15. 

C^ESALPINTIS,  44,  77. 

Almond  sub-family,  59. 

Calyptra,  22. 

Alvord,  Maj.  Benj.,  104. 

Calyx,  33. 

Amici,  79. 
Amphicarpaea,  96. 
Anemophilous,  84. 

Cambium,  38. 
Camerarius,  Jacques,  78. 
Canada  thistle,  63,  145. 

Anther,  30. 

Cardoon,  68. 

Apetalous,  35. 

Carnation,  161. 

Apple,  56,  60. 

Carnivorous  plants,  118. 

flower,  29,  56. 

Carrot,  146. 

name,  161. 

Caryophyllacese,  161. 

twig,  100. 

Caryophyllus  aromatica,  162. 

Apricot,  59. 
Arrangement  of  leaves,  98. 

Caulicle,  149. 
Cells,  70. 

Arthur,  Prof.  J.  C.,  106. 

Champlain,  67. 

Artichoke,  67,  68. 

Cherry,  59. 

Artificial  classification,  48. 

buds,  152. 

Ash-flower,  33. 

flower,  55. 

Assimilation,  5,  73. 
Aster,  60. 

Chicory,  63,  65,  81. 
Chlorophyll,  73. 

Choke-berry,  60. 

BACTERIA,  6. 

Classification  of  flowering  plants. 

Beal,  Dr.  W.  J.,  106,  140. 

41. 

Bean,  2. 

artificial,  48. 

Bean  vine,  110. 

Linnaean,  48. 

Bed-straw,  103. 

natural,  49. 

Beech-drop,  151. 
Beet,  146. 

Cleistogamous  flowers,  96. 
Clematis,  108. 

Beggar's-ticks,  64. 

Close-fertilization,  83. 

Begonia  cuttings,  149. 

Clove,  161. 

Bignonia,  117. 

Club-mosses,  27. 

Bilberry,  164. 

Cockle,  165. 

Binomial  nomenclature,  47,  159. 

Compass-plant,  104. 

Blackberry,  57,  59. 

Complete  flower,  35. 

Blight,  10,  153. 

Composite  family,  60. 

Blue-flag,  145. 

Coreopsis  flower,  62. 

Brambles,  108. 

Corn,  147,  150. 

Briers,  108. 

Corn-cockle,  165. 

Brongniart,  79. 

Corn-stalk,  36. 

•  Bryony,  116. 

Corolla,  32. 

170 


INDEX. 


Cotyledon,  3. 

Flower,  apetalous,  35. 

Cowslip,  31. 

complete,  35. 

Crab-apple,  60. 

definition  of,  35. 

Cross-fertilization,  81,  83. 

description  of,  29-34. 

Crowfoots,  32,  51. 

gamopetalous,  35. 

Cummin,  166. 

incomplete,  35. 

Cuttings,  149. 

imperfect,  35. 

Cynara  Scolymus,  68. 

irregular,  36. 

monopetalous,  35. 

DAHLIA,  146. 

neutral,  35. 

Daisy,  65. 

perfect,  35. 

Dalibarda,  96. 

pistillate,  35. 

Dandelion,  64. 

polypetalous,  35. 

Dandelion,  fall,  97. 

regular,  36. 

Darlingtonia,  122,  125. 

staminate,  35. 

Darwin,  82,  96,  116,  128. 

Flowering-fern,  27. 

De  Candolle,  50. 

Flowering  plants,  5. 

Delpino,  83,  86. 

Flowerless  plants,  4. 

Desrnids,  16. 

Fruit,  2. 

Dianthus  Caryophyllus,  161. 

Fruit-dots,  24. 

Diatoms,  16. 

Fuchs,  43. 

Dichogamy,  88. 

Fungi,  6. 

Dicotyledons,  40. 

Dimorphous  flowers,  90. 
Dioecious,  81. 

GALIUM,  103. 
Gamopetalous  flower,  35. 

Dionoea,  128. 

Gaylussacia,  164. 

Dioscorides,  43. 

Genera,  47. 

Disk,  62. 

Geotropism,  144. 

Dog-berry,  60. 

Gerardia,  151. 

Drupe,  59. 
Duck-meats,  130. 

Gessner,  Conrad,  47. 
Gilliflower,  162. 

Git,  166. 

ECHINOCYSTIS,  81,  112. 

Gith,  166. 

Edible  fungi,  14. 

Githago,  167. 

Eel-grass,  85. 

Golden-rod,  61. 

Elm,  98. 

Gonidia,  20. 

Embryo,  3. 

Grape  mildew,  11. 

Endive,  65. 

Grass  family,  51. 

Endogens,  37. 

Gray,  Asa,  105. 

Entomophilous,  86. 

Green-brier,  37. 

Epidermis,  71. 

Grew,  Nehemiah.  78. 

Equisetums,  27. 

Growth,  76. 

Erigeron  Canadense,  106. 

Eucalyptus,  133. 

HAIRS,  71. 

Evening  primrose,  pollen  of,  81. 

Hand-glass,  155. 

Exogens,  37. 

Hawthorn,  60. 

Eyes  on  potatoes,  145. 

Heart-wood,  39. 

Heliamphora,  125. 

FALL  DANDELION,  97. 

Hen-and-chickens,  102. 

Families,  natural,  52. 

Hepaticae,  21. 

Fennel  flower,  165. 

Herodotus,  77. 

Ferns,  23. 

Hidden  flowers,  94. 

Fertilization,  83. 

Holly,  101. 

Figwort,  89. 

Hooded  violet,  94,  157. 

Fitches,  166. 

Hop,  108. 

Flax,  101. 

Horse-tails,  27. 

Floral  envelope,  30. 

Horse-weed,  106. 

Florets,  61. 

House-leek,  102. 

INDEX. 


171 


Huckleberry,  164. 

Monocotyledons,  40. 

Humming-birds,  93. 

Monoecious,  80. 

Hybrids,  94. 

Monopetalous  flower,  35. 

Morning-glory,  32,  110. 

IMPATIENS  FULVA,  97. 

Mosses,  21,  22. 

Imperfect  flower,  35. 

Moss,  long^  150. 

Incomplete  flower,  35. 

Moths,  93. 

Indian  corn,  147,  150. 

Moulds,  10. 

Indian  pipe,  151. 

Mountain  ash,  60. 

Inorganic  substances,  5. 

Musci,  21. 

Insectivorous  plants,  119. 

Mushrooms,  13. 

Internode,  108. 

Musk-plant,  pollen  of,  81. 

Involucre,  64. 

Myrtleberry,  164. 

Irregular  flow  er  36. 

Ivy,  108,  150. 

NAMES  of  plants,  47,  156,  160. 

Naming  of  plants,  156. 

JERUSALEM  ARTICHOKE,  67. 

Natural  classification,  49. 

Juncus  bufonius,  97. 

Natural  families,  52. 

Jussieu,  50. 

Nectarine,  59. 

Neutral  flower,  35, 

KALMIA,  92. 

Nigella  sativa,  165. 

Koelreuter,  82. 

Nomenclature,  binomial,  47,  159, 

Nutmeg-flower,  165. 

LACTUCA  SCARIOLA,  106. 

Larch,  103. 

OAK  STEM,  37, 

Laurel,  92. 

Orders,  natural,  52. 

Leaf-bud,  143. 

Organic  substances,  5, 

Leaf-climbers,  108, 

Osage  orange,  101. 

Leaves,  arrangement  of,  98 

Ovary,  31. 

Leersia,  97. 

Lemnas,  130. 

PALISADE  CELLS,  72, 

Lens,  154. 

Palm  stem,  37. 

Lettuce,  65,  106. 

Pappus,  63. 

Lettuce-weed,  106, 

Parasites,  6,  151. 

Lichens,  19. 

Parkinson,  68. 

Linden  limb,  135. 

Parsnip,  146. 

Linnaean  classification  ,.  48. 

Pea  family,  52. 

Linnaeus,  45, 

flower,  92. 

Liverworts,  21. 

tendril,  116. 

Long-moss,  150. 

Peach,  59. 

Love-in-the-mist,  166. 

Peach  limb,  135. 

Lychnis  Githago,  165,  16T. 

Pear,  56,  60. 

Pear  sub-family,  59. 

MALLOW,  pollen  of,  81. 
Maple,  red,  46. 

Peony,  98. 
Perfect  flower,  35v 

Marchantia  polymorpha,  21. 

Petals,  30. 

Mare's-tail,  106. 

Petunia,  93. 

Marsh-marigold,  31. 

!  Phyllotaxy,  98,  103. 

May-apple,  145. 

Pigeon-wheat  moss,  22; 

Medlar,  56,  60. 

Pine,  cones  of,  102. 

Medullary  rays,  40v 
Metastasis,  74. 

leaves  of,  103. 
pollen  of,  81,  84. 

Michaux,  158. 

seed  of,  3. 

Microscope,  154. 

Pink  family,  161. 

Microscopic  structure,  69", 
Mildew,  10. 

Pistil,  31. 
Pistillate  flower,  35. 

Mint  flower,  33. 

Pitcher  plant,  119. 

Mist-flower,  166. 

Plum,  59. 

172 


INDEX. 


Plum-knot,  12. 
Poison  ivy,  108,  150. 
Polarity  in  plants,  104. 
Pollen,  30,  80. 
Pollen  tubes,  79. 
Polo,  Marco,  163,  164. 
Polygamous  flower,  81. 
Polypetalous  flower,  35. 
Polypores,  12. 
Pome,  56. 
Portulaca,  164. 
Potato,  146. 
Prior,  Dr.,  163. 
Proterandrous,  88. 
Proterogynous,  88. 
Protococcus  nivalis,  18. 
Protoplasm,  73. 
Puff-ball,  13. 
Pumpkin,  153. 
Pumpkin  Tine,  71. 
Purslane,  163. 
Pyrus,  60. 

Americana,  60. 

arbutifolia,  60. 

communis,  60. 

coronaria,  60. 

Cydonia,  60. 

malus,  60. 

prunifolia,  60. 

QUACK  GRASS,  145. 
Quince,  56,  60. 

RADICLE,  153. 
Radish,  146. 
Rafflesia,  36. 
Raspberry,  57,  59. 
Ray,  John,  44. 
Rays,  61. 
Receptacle,  55. 
Red  maple,  46. 
Red  snow,  18. 
Redwood,  133. 
Regular  flower,  36. 
Rhizome,  145. 
Rhubarb,  145. 
Rivinius,  45. 
Root-climbers,  108. 
Root-hairs,  147. 
Roots,  talk  about,  140. 
Rosaceae,  54. 
Rose,  57. 
Rose  family,  54. 
Rosin-weed,  104 
Rusts,  10. 

SALSIFY,  65. 
Saprophyte,  6. 


Sapwood,  39. 
Sarracenia  purpurea,  119. 
Sarracenia  variolaris,  121. 
Schizaea,  26. 
Scorzonera,  65. 
Scouring  rushes,  28. 
Scramblers,  106. 
Scrophularia,  88. 
Scum  on  ponds,  18. 
Sea-weeds,  15. 
Seed,  definition  of,  2. 
Seed-leaves,  3. 
Segard,  67. 
Self-fertilization,  83. 
Senecio,  61. 
Sepals,  30. 
Service-berry,  60. 
Sex,  77. 

Side-saddle  flower,  119. 
Simpson's  bee-plant,  88. 
Smilax,  37. 
Snails,  93. 
Snap-dragon,  71 
Solidago,  61. 
Spawn,  14. 
Spiraea,  59. 
Sprengel,  Conrad,  82. 
Spore,  4. 

Squash  plant,  140. 
Stamens,  30. 
Staminate  flower,  35. 
Stigma,  31. 
Stocks,  163. 
Stomata,  73. 
Strawberry,  57,  59. 
Style,  31. 
Sundew,  125. 
Sunflower,  66,  102. 
Sunflower  family,  CO. 

TABULAR  CELLS,  71. 
Tamarack,  103. 
Tape  grass,  85. 
Tendril-climbers,  112. 
Ten-weeks'  stocks,  163. 
Thistle  head,  136. 
Toad-stools,  13. 
Token,  135. 
Touch-me-not,  97. 
Tournefort,  Joseph  P.  de,  45. 
Tragus,  Hieronymus,  44. 
Trichomanes  Petersii,  23. 
Trimorphous,  92. 
Tubers,  150. 
Turnip,  146. 
Twiners,  108. 

VACCIKIUM,  164. 


INDEX. 


173 


Vaillant,  Sebastian,  78. 
Vallisneri,  A.,  86. 
Vallisneria  spiralis,  86. 
Vanilla,  150. 
Vegetable  oyster,  65. 
Venus'  fly-trap,  128. 
Vessels,  70. 
Viola  cucullata,  94. 
Violet,  94,  156. 
Virginia  creeper,  117. 
Virgin' s-bower,  108. 

WALKING-LEAF  FERN,  26. 
Weddell,  Mons.  H..  132. 
Whortleberry,  164 
Wild  cucumber,  112. 
pollen  of,  81. 


Willdenow,  158. 
Willow  flower,  33. 
Willow  twigs,  139. 
Wistaria,  110. 
Witch-hazel,  133. 
Wolffia,  36,  131,  133. 
Wolff,  John  F.,  133. 
Woodbine,  117. 
Wood  cells,  70. 
Wood-sorrel,  96,  97. 
Wych-elm,  136. 

YEAST  PLANTS,  9. 

ZALUZIANSKI,  78. 
Zygnema,  18,  130. 


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dent (New  York). 

The  Gypsies.     By  CHARLES  G.  LELAND.     With 

Sketches  of  the  English,  Welsh,  Russian,  and  Austrian 
Romany ;  and  papers  on  the  Gypsy  Language.  Crown  8vo, 
$2.00. 

We  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  this  is  the  most  de^ 
lightf til  Gypsy  book  with  which  we  are  acquainted.  — The  Spec- 
tator (London). 

The  Maine  Woods.     By  HENRY   D.  THOREAU. 

12mo,  gilt  top,  $1.50. 

Wake-Robin.     By  JOHN    BURROUGHS.     Revised 

and  enlarged  edition,  illustrated.     16mo,  $1.50. 

CONTENTS  :  The  Return  of  the  Birds ;  In  the  Hemlocks  j 
Adirondac;  Birds'-Nests;  Spring  at  the  Capital ;  Birch  Brow- 
sings; The  Bluebird;  The  Invitation. 

Walden  ;  or,  Life  in  the  Woods.     By  HENRY 

D.  THOREAU.     12mo,  gilt  top,  $1.50. 

Birds  in  the  Bush.  By  BRADFORD  TORRET.  16mo. 

CONTENTS  :  On  Boston  Common ;  Bird-Songs ;  Character 
in  Feathers;  In  the  White  Mountains;  Phillida  and  Coridon  ; 
Scraping  Acquaintance  ;  Minor  Songsters  ;  Winter  Birds  about 
Boston  ;  A  Bird-Lover's  April ;  An  Owl's  Head  Holiday  ;  A 
Month's  Music. 

Winter  Sunshine.     By  JOHN  BURROUGHS.    New 

edition,  revised  and  enlarged,  with  frontispiece  illustration. 
16mo,  $1.50. 

The  minuteness  of  his  observation,  the  keenness  of  his  per- 
ception, give  him  a  real  originality,  and  his  sketches  have  a 
delightful  oddity,  vivacity,  and  freshness.  —  The  Nation  (New 
York). 

*%*  For  sale  by  all  Booksellers.  Sent  by  mail,  post-paid,  on 
receipt  of  pric.e  by  the  Publishers, 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO.,  BOSTON,  MASS. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
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LIBRARY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  Slip-50m-12,'64(F772s4)458 


369768 

Bailey,   L.H. 

Talks  afield  about 
plants  and  the  science 
of  plants* 


QK81 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


